


and i was made for loving you

by theflyinganonymouse



Category: VIXX
Genre: AU, Angst, Fluff, Hybrids, I will add more as I go along, M/M, Mpreg, Non AU, Smut, Soulmates, Vampires, probs more angst than fluff, tiny bits of humour, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2018-12-20 16:53:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11925153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theflyinganonymouse/pseuds/theflyinganonymouse
Summary: A series of Wontaek minific / drabbles.





	1. Sacrifice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Person A fully capable of annihilating every enemy surrounding them with ease. However, they relinquish their weapon and surrender for the safety of Person B, much to B’s horror.'
> 
> Prompt taken from here.

Wonshik can see the fury on Taekwoon’s face and he takes some comfort in knowing that he’s not going to be the only one who doesn’t make it out of this fight alive. A furious Taekwoon is a deadly Taekwoon, after all, even if Wonshik thinks he should be running away instead of fighting.

He knows why Taekwoon is choosing to fight.

There’s a knife digging uncomfortably into the skin of Wonshik’s throat but he doesn’t really mind, scared but at peace with what’s about to happen. It’s the dangerous nature of their business- death is never too far away. Everyone in the resistance knows that.

But Taekwoon doesn’t seem to as ready to accept this as Wonshik is.

His sword keeps on swinging. There’s blood and guts and screams and Taekwoon barely even blinks. He should be running. He should be dragging Hongbin and Sanghyuk away from the fight instead of leading them further into it. Not to save Wonshik. Their lives are not worth his.

‘Run!’ Wonshik wants to shout because they’re outnumbered – four against a couple of dozen – and not even the all-powerful _Leo_ is going to be able to save him from this one. ‘Please, just run!’

“Don’t take a step closer.” The guard with his blade digging into Wonshik’s throat spits once Taekwoon has hacked his way through a handful of people to reach them. “I’ll slit his throat.”

“Release him.” Taekwoon commands and his voice is loud enough that the rest of the fighting dies down. Wonshik can see Hongbin and Sanghyuk, bloodied and bruised but _okay_ , and something in his chest eases. “I won’t ask again.”

“Leo.” He hisses and Taekwoon looks at him. Wonshik can see the fear in his eyes. “Don’t-.”

The hand in his hair jerks his head back and the words die on his lips.

“Drop your sword.” The guard orders. “And we’ll think about letting your friend here go.”

Taekwoon’s sword lowers an inch and Wonshik wants to scream, desperation clawing at his veins. Taekwoon can’t seriously be considering surrendering- not for him, not when there’s so much that Leo has to do for the resistance.

Wonshik’s life isn’t worth that.

“Please.” He begs and the knife nicks the sensitive skin of his neck. “Please, just run.”

“If I surrender myself to you,” Taekwoon says, his eyes never leaving Wonshik’s face, “then you have to promise to let my men go free.”

“Leo, no-!”

“Promise me this.” Taekwoon demands and he is nothing like the man Wonshik had woken up besides that morning. That man had been sweet words and awkward blushes and everything Wonshik could have ever wanted, not this self-sacrificing, noble _fool_. “And I will let you take me to your Lord.”

“Leo!” Hongbin shouts.

“Drop your sword.” The guard says. “And I give you my word that your men will walk free.”

Taekwoon lets the grip on his sword slacken and it hits the floor with a dull _thud_.

Then suddenly Wonshik is being pushed into Sanghyuk’s waiting arms.

“No!” Wonshik screams, fighting first Sanghyuk’s and then both his and Hongbin’s hold on him as they drag him away. “No!”

Taekwoon drops to his knees in submission.

“Wonshik, please!” Sanghyuk begs and Wonshik can hear the tears he is desperately trying to smother. They are getting close to the trees now and will soon be free. “We have to go.”

“Taekwoon!” Wonshik howls. “You idiot!”

Taekwoon looks up at him and smiles.

‘I love you.’ His eyes say.

The last thing Wonshik sees before he’s dragged out of sight is the swing of a sword.


	2. Speak (words I wanna hear)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Person B overhearing Person A admit to C that while they love B more than anything in the world, they’re certain that B doesn’t love them back at all. Person B spends the rest of the day proving just how much they do sincerely love A.'
> 
> Prompt taken from here.

“What the fuck am I doing?”

Taekwoon pauses by the door.

He knows he shouldn’t be listening in but Wonshik had sounded mad? Upset? Something twists in Taekwoon’s chest because he hadn’t noticed anything wrong with his boyfriend when they had spoken earlier.

“Do you regret getting with him?” Someone – _Hongbin_ – asks, his voice quieter, further away.

Taekwoon’s heart clenches painfully.

“Yes? No? I don’t know.” Wonshik says and Taekwoon has to jam his fist in his mouth to keep himself from making any noise. “I love him so fucking much but I get nothing back from him. I don’t even know if he loves me. He’s never said it and I just- I just don’t know how much longer I can go on like this. It _hurts_.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Wonshik responds. “What can I do? Break up with him?”

There are more words but Taekwoon doesn’t stick around to hear them. He all but sprints down the hall to the nearest set of bathrooms and locks himself in one of the stalls, desperately fanning at his face to keep the tears from falling. He doesn’t think he could cope with getting scolded by the stylists on top of what he’s just heard.

And he doesn’t _understand_.

He loves Wonshik.

He loves Wonshik with everything he is and he’d always thought Wonshik had known that. Who else did Taekwoon let steal the covers on a night and keep him up until the early hours with his snoring? Who else did Taekwoon cuddle on the couch after a long day? Who else did he let steal his headphones when they had forgotten their own?

Who else did Taekwoon get down on his knees for?

Who else did Taekwoon spread himself wide for and let sink into every part of his being?

He bites back a sob.

How could Wonshik not know?

These last few months are the happiest Taekwoon has ever been. He doesn’t want to lose that. He doesn’t want to lose Wonshik. He needs to do _something_.

He just wishes… He just wishes he wasn’t so embarrassingly awkward with words and actions and everything to do with how he feels. He wants to be better than that, he’s always wanted to be better than that, but he’s let his embarrassment hold him back. He can’t let that happen anymore, not when it could mean losing Wonshik.

He loves Wonshik too much to let him go.

He keeps to himself for the rest of the day, planning and plotting and trying hard to not blush too much at all the ridiculous ideas he has, and tries to not let the hurt show too much when Wonshik keeps his distance.

It’s still pitch black when he gets up the next morning, hours before anyone else and only a couple of hours after first lying down to sleep, and he makes a trip to the nearest 24-hour store. He knows what he wants to get so he doesn’t have to waste any time thinking up ideas while he’s there. He still ends up spending a small fortune, however, buying all of Wonshik’s favourite snacks and his arms ache having to carry it the couple of blocks back to their dorm.

He stashes the snacks away in one of the kitchen cupboards he knows Wonshik and none of the other kids go in once he gets back. The hours after that are spent working in silence chopping and peeling vegetables, stirring the contents of too many different pots and pans and cooking rice.

He’s just about finished when the first person comes padding into the kitchen.

“What’s the occasion?” It’s Hakyeon and he looks confused even as he snags a mouthful of god knows what.

“Can you wake the kids?” Taekwoon asks, too busy focusing on dishing everything up. “I want them to eat while everything’s hot.”

 Jaehwan, Hongbin and Sanghyuk come willingly and Taekwoon frets that they’re going to eat all the best bits before Wonshik even gets out of bed. He joins Hakyeon in trying to get him up and earns himself a flailing hand to the face for the effort.

The guilt of giving his boyfriend a split lip is enough to drag Wonshik from bed but it doesn’t really _wake him up_ and Taekwoon watches on in despair as Wonshik shovels food into his mouth without taking the chance to chew it, let alone taste it.

He ushers Wonshik into the bathroom once he’s finished eating and before either of the kids or Jaehwan can get in there first. The first person to shower in the morning gets the best of the hot water and nothing is wet with condensation from the showers before. Taekwoon usually has the first shower but this morning he gives this up for Wonshik.

He sneaks into Wonshik and Sanghyuk’s room while Wonshik is in the bathroom and Sanghyuk is still eating. He hides heart shaped chocolates and mushy notes he had cringed writing under Wonshik’s pillow and in his bag and in his underwear drawer before retreating back to his own room to try and slow his panicky breathing.

“Why did you let Wonshik in the bathroom first?” Jaehwan complains when he strolls into their room. “You know he never showers on a morning.”

Taekwoon’s heart drops.

“You’re such an idiot.” Jaehwan adds because he can’t help himself.

Taekwoon mopes for long enough that he misses any chance of a hot shower and gets scolded by their manager for being late.

“Did you enjoy breakfast?” Taekwoon tries once they’ve all piled into the van and he’s taken a seat in the back next to Wonshik instead on his usual one in the middle. He takes Wonshik’s hand in his own and gives it a squeeze. “There were a lot of your favourite dishes.”

“Yeah.” Wonshik agrees and then louder calls, “thank you for ordering breakfast in, Hakyeon hyung.”

“You’re welcome.” Hakyeon flashes the two of them a bright smile from the front passenger seat.

Taekwoon is devastated.   

They have a photoshoot in the morning and then pre-recording for a music show in the afternoon and Taekwoon spends the whole day sneaking Wonshik snacks from his bag and pressing sweet little kisses to his lips whenever they get a second to themselves even if the thought alone of such public displays of affection is enough to get his heart racing.

He tries leaving notes, too, but quickly gives up on that idea after Sanghyuk intercepts the first one and teases him almost to the point of tears. 

Wonshik remains oblivious.

He doesn’t even notice the chocolates in his bag even if Taekwoon has seen him rummaging around in it at various points during the day.

Taekwoon wants to cry.

He’s doesn’t know what else to do. There’s desperation building in his chest and exhaustion clouding his mind and he just doesn’t want to lose Wonshik. Not when he swears he can feel Wonshik already pulling away.

They get back to the dorm and Taekwoon all but drags Wonshik into his and Sanghyuk’s room, locking the door so the youngest can’t interrupt.

“Taekwoon.” Wonshik gasps once Taekwoon is finished kissing him senseless. “I’m tired, I’m not really-.”

But Taekwoon is already on his knees and tugging at Wonshik’s belt.

He needs to do this, he needs to show Wonshik that he loves him. He’s terrified that he’s running out of time.

Wonshik doesn’t seem to be in the mood to play along because he takes both of Taekwoon’s wrists in his hands before Taekwoon can finish unbuttoning his jeans.

“What are you doing?” Wonshik asks and he sounds mad.

It’s too much and Taekwoon, after an exhausting day running on only three hours of sleep, bursts into tears.

“I love you!” He wails. “I’m so sorry that I’m shit with saying and doing stuff and it makes you think I don’t love you. It isn’t true! You’re everything I could ever want. You make me so happy, Wonshik, and I am so lucky to have you and I love you so much, okay? I love you!”

“Taek-.”

“I’ll be better, I promise.” Taekwoon ploughs on. He’s got his arms wrapped around Wonshik’s waist now and his face buried in his crotch. “I’ll cook you breakfast every day from now on and I’ll always make sure you’re first in the bathroom even if you don’t shower on a morning and I’ll keep snacks in my bag in case you ever get hungry. I’ll kiss you whenever you want and we can hold hands and cuddle even if there are people watching. Please, Wonshik, I’ll do whatever you want.”

“What are you talking about?” Wonshik asks.

“I love you.” Taekwoon repeats. “Please believe me.”

Wonshik joins him on the floor and Taekwoon immediately grabs his hands, needing something to anchor himself.

“Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to say that to me?”

“I’m sorry.” Taekwoon sobs and he’s certain he looks a mess. “Please forgive me. I love you, Wonshik.”

“I love you, too.” Wonshik says and he kisses Taekwoon on the lips. “I love you very much.”

Taekwoon smiles and Wonshik thinks he’s the most beautiful person he’s ever seen, snot and all.

Someone knocks on the door then and jangles the handle and Wonshik sees Taekwoon stiffen.

“What?” He calls.

It’s Jaehwan, “if you’ve finished fucking or whatever you’re doing then dinner is ready.”

“We’ll be there in a minute.” Wonshik tells him.

Taekwoon cheeks are burning hot and he looks ready to crawl into a hole and die.

“Do you need a minute?” Wonshik asks even as his own stomach rumbles.

Taekwoon nods jerkily and repeats, “I love you.”

Wonshik can’t keep the smile from his face, not even when he joins the rest of the members around the table for dinner, and it earns him a few eyerolls.

“What?” Jaehwan asks.

“He loves me.”

That earns him groans from everyone but Hongbin.

“Duh.” Hakyeon says. “Haven’t you seen the way he looks at you? Like you hung the moon? It’s actually really gross.”

“What?”

“And the breakfast he made for you this morning, he nearly lost his shit with us for eating it before you decided to crawl out of bed.” Sanghyuk adds.

 Wonshik’s head spins, “I thanked Hakyeon for ordering it in this morning in the car.”

“Oh.” Hakyeon says. “Is that what you said? I thought you were thanking me for waking you in time for breakfast.”

“Seriously, though, how can you not tell?” Jaehwan asks. “I didn’t think heart-eyes were a real thing until the two of you got together.”

“He’s never said it before.”

Hakyeon slaps him on the back of his head, “are you blind?”

“Hongbin agreed!”

“You went to Hongbin for relationship advice?” Jaehwan shakes his head. “You’re an idiot.”

“Hey!” Hongbin tries to defend himself.

“He loves you.” Hakyeon says. “I can’t believe you needed him to tell you.”

Wonshik thinks he gets his just deserts when he wakes up the next morning with a chocolate, wrapper and all, stuck to his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluffy? Angsty? Who knows. Let me know if there's anything you would like to read and I will try my best :)


	3. Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So who knows where this came from lol
> 
> Warnings: mpreg, mentions of vomit & illness

Wonshik’s heart starts to pound in his chest as he walks the hallway to their apartment and he can’t keep the smile from his face.

It’s been two weeks since he was last at home and no amount of rushed phone calls or texts could ever make up for the feeling of waking up in his own bed with Butt asleep at his feet and Taekwoon sprawled across his chest.

He’s excited to see his dog. No matter how hard Taekwoon has tried to capture him in photos or videos, it just isn’t the same as seeing him in real life. He appreciates that Taekwoon had tried, though, given how they had left things before Wonshik had gone away.

Taekwoon.

_Taekwoon._

Wonshik’s smile grows as he thinks of his husband. Being half way around the world and perhaps not on the best of terms has meant that they’ve not had facetimed like they usually would when Wonshik is away and have instead made do with quick phone calls either first thing on a morning or last thing at night. Wonshik misses his husband’s face.

But more than his face, he can’t wait to see his husband’s body. He can’t wait to press his hand against Taekwoon’s stomach to feel the evidence of the life – _lives_ – they’ve created.  

Triplets.

Wonshik can hardly believe it. He had hardly believed they were having one baby right up until they were sitting in the waiting room at the hospital for Taekwoon’s first scan with all the other expecting couples.

“We’re going to be parents.” He had whispered and then had promptly burst into tears.

And then when they’d gotten to see the three tiny blobs on the ultrasound- Wonshik had laughed and laughed until Taekwoon, his eyes watery and frightened, had punched him on the arm and with the pain the reality of the situation had hit him like a tonne of bricks.

He had passed out.

Wonshik snorts to himself and tries to not feel too embarrassed. It was nearly a month ago now, after all, and the bruise he had from hitting his head on the edge of the bed had long healed.

Taekwoon had given him a lot of shit for passing out once he’d come to and then, in a weird twist of fate that Wonshik wasn’t too displeased about, Taekwoon had had to endure their friends cooing over Wonshik’s bruised forehead for the next couple of weeks while he himself had had to hide his own condition, neither of them ready to tell their friends and family the big news just yet. It had caused some tension, Taekwoon jealous that their friends weren’t cooing over him when he was the one doing the hard work, but Wonshik had just told him to grow up.

Of course, it had come to a head the night before Wonshik left.

Wonshik thinks Taekwoon was just being petty and childish.

He’d thrown up a lot since before they’d first found out about his pregnancy and then, when they’d found out it was triplets, he hadn’t stopped complaining about feeling sick and tired and scared and Wonshik, while he had been sympathetic at first, had gotten tired of it pretty quickly.

Wonshik was scared, too, desperately so, but he just didn’t have the time to think about it when work was being such a bitch. He had so many deadlines to meet before his business trip that he was practically living at the office, doing 12 and 14 hour days six days a week, and going home to a sulky Taekwoon was more than he could bear.

So, they fought.

He didn’t think he was being unreasonable. Taekwoon had morning sickness. It was a normal part of pregnancy and Wonshik hadn’t even seen Taekwoon throw up that much in the last few weeks before he left- he definitely didn’t think it warranted the amount of complaining his husband did about it.

Besides, it wasn’t even like Taekwoon had to leave the house for work – being a freelance writer meant he had no office to go to – so Wonshik didn’t think Taekwoon had it too bad. He could lie around in bed for as long as he wanted while Wonshik went to the office and worked hard. And Wonshik did work hard. He was their main source of income and the reason they lived as comfortably as they did. Taekwoon knew that and Taekwoon, usually, did everything he could to make Wonshik’s life easier.

That included making sure Wonshik had dinner waiting for him when he got home. Except in the week before Wonshik had gone away, Taekwoon hadn’t made him dinner once. Each night he’d come home, starving and exhausted and so foul tempered, to find his husband curled up in their bed with dinner nowhere to be found.

Then, on the last night before his trip, Wonshik had snapped.

“You’re pregnant, not dying!” Wonshik had shouted when Taekwoon had told him he felt sick. “It’s just morning sickness- it’s not like you’re the first person to go through it!”

“I feel like shit!” Taekwoon had snapped back. “I can’t even look at food without-.”

“You’re always like this- stop being such a fucking drama queen.” Wonshik had spat and Taekwoon had immediately clammed up.

Wonshik thinks he was lucky to get a kiss goodbye the next morning.

Still, Taekwoon had been cold with him the whole time he was away: not replying to half of his texts and rushing through phone calls. Only the photos and videos of Butt had come as normal but even they hadn't come through in the last couple of days. Nothing had.

And while this isn’t too far away from how their fights usually go, Wonshik is worried that Taekwoon will be angry at him for a long time to come. He hopes not. Not when Wonshik already feels so bad about their fight and the cruel things he’d said.

He hopes that Taekwoon will accept his apologies when he says them in person because he is sorry. Distance and time to sleep has made him see he was being an idiot, too. He knows that Taekwoon is going through a lot at the moment and Wonshik needs to be more patient. He knows he needs to try harder because he wants Taekwoon, he wants their little – _huge_ – family. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it. He hopes the three tiny baby grows he has stashed away in his suitcase will help him prove that to Taekwoon. He hopes it’s enough to have Taekwoon forgive him.

Probably not, knowing his husband, but he thinks it’s a start.

He hears Butt barking on the other side of the door as he keys the code in for their apartment and he immediately drops to his knees and lets himself be smothered by enthusiastic kisses from the dog.

“Hey, buddy, did you miss me?” He asks and then wrinkles his nose as he catches smell of something foul. “What the-?”

There’s mess all over the entrance hall and when he steps further into the apartment, having to lift his suitcase over the puddles of piss and piles of poop, he sees Butt’s food and water bowls are empty.

“Taekwoon!” Wonshik shouts but there’s no sign his husband is even in the apartment.

He busies himself with putting down fresh water and food for Butt before cleaning the entrance hall, cursing Taekwoon a million times over.

Because how could he be so careless?

Butt was starving, probably hadn’t been walked in a couple of days, and Wonshik was furious. Surely Taekwoon wasn’t petty enough to punish Butt when it was Wonshik he was really mad at? No- Taekwoon loved the dog just as much as he did. It didn’t make sense.

He calls Hakyeon once he’s done but their friend hasn’t heard from Taekwoon in over a week.

Worry begins to mix with the anger.

He slips his shoes off and heads down the hall to their bedroom, thinking about getting changed out of his suit and into something more comfortable even as he dials Sanghyuk’s cell, and he pushes the door to the room open with a bit more force than is really necessary just as Sanghyuk answers.

“Wonshik?” He asks when Wonshik doesn’t speak.

But the words are lost somewhere in Wonshik’s throat, choked by the acrid stench of vomit in the air. Because Taekwoon… Taekwoon is in bed and his hair is stuck to his face with sweat and there’s dried vomit on his chin and on the sheets and he looks- he looks _dead_.

For a split second Wonshik is certain he is but then he catches the shallow rise and fall of his chest and he knows he’s still alive.

“Wonshik?” Sanghyuk tries again. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“No.” Wonshik gasps around a sob. “Can you- can you drive us to the hospital. Taekwoon, he’s…”

“Shit.” Sanghyuk swears and Wonshik can hear him moving around while Wonshik is still frozen in place. “I’ll be there in five minutes, okay? I’ll meet you by your front door.”

Sanghyuk hangs up then and Wonshik puts his phone back in his pocket without thinking.

He staggers towards the bed and cups Taekwoon’s face in his large hands as soon as he’s close enough.

Taekwoon’s skin is burning hot.

“Taekwoon, baby, it’s me, it’s Wonshik.” He says and all he gets is a flutter of eyelashes in return. “Can you hear me?”

Taekwoon’s cheeks are hollowed and his lips cracked and bleeding and Wonshik wonders when he last drank anything, when he last ate.

He pulls the tangled mess of covers from Taekwoon’s trembling body and Wonshik’s heart sinks when he catches sight of Taekwoon’s stomach and sees the swell of flesh.

_The babies._

What if- what if-.

He doesn’t let himself think. He _can’t_.

Instead he pulls Taekwoon from bed and into his arms, hating how light he feels when Wonshik has always joked about him being too heavy to carry, and lets his feet carry them out of the apartment, to the elevator and down into the lobby. Taekwoon doesn’t stir, not even when Wonshik accidentally jostles him, and that terrifies Wonshik beyond words.

Sanghyuk is waiting for them when Wonshik stumbles out of the lobby and into the cold night air.

“What’s wrong with him?” Sanghyuk asks, pulling the door to the backseat open and cushioning Taekwoon’s head as Wonshik manoeuvres them into the car.

“I don’t know.” Wonshik says. “A fever? I don’t know.”

Sanghyuk waits until he’s back in the car and they’re on the way to the hospital before speaking again, “how long has he been sick?”

“I don’t know.” Wonshik says again and then he starts to cry.

“What?” Sanghyuk asks, trying to meet his eye in the rearview mirror, because he knows there’s something Wonshik isn’t telling him. “What is it?”

“He’s pregnant, Hyukkie.” Wonshik sobs.

Sanghyuk swears, “okay, I’ll, uh, I’ll have Hakyeon meet us at the hospital. The others, too. It’ll be okay.”

Wonshik is thankful for their friends because, once they get to the hospital, Taekwoon is taken from him and no one will tell him what’s going on. Hakyeon holds his hand and Hongbin lets him cry into his shoulder. Sanghyuk keeps him plied with coffee from the crappy machine down the hall and Jaehwan tries to distract him by telling stupid stories.

Wonshik can’t bear to tell them that Taekwoon is pregnant, even if he’s told Sanghyuk, because he’s terrified that if he tells them then something bad is going to happen to make it not true anymore.

It’s after midnight that a doctor comes to find them.

“How is he?” Wonshik asks.

The doctor talks to them about intravenous drips and dehydration and antiemetics but Wonshik doesn’t really take anything in beyond the knowledge that Taekwoon _is going to be okay_.

“And the babies?” He asks. He sees his friends, even Sanghyuk, turn to look at him with wide eyes but he ignores them. “Are they going to be okay?”

The doctor nods and Wonshik’s knees give out. It’s only Hongbin’s quick reactions that keep him from hitting the floor.

“We want to keep your husband in for the next few days.” The doctor says. “He’s obviously been struggling with morning sickness- it’s a lot more extreme than I would normally expect at this stage in his pregnancy. I want to monitor him and make sure he and the babies are getting the care that they need.”

“Morning sickness?” Wonshik repeats, thinking back to his and Taekwoon’s fight.

“Well, more likely hyperemesis gravidarum- a more extreme version of morning sickness.” The doctor explains.

Wonshik feels like crying all over again.

“Is he awake?” Wonshik asks. “Can I see him?”

“He’s been asking for you.” The doctor says. “But there’s a few more tests I want to run. I’ll have one of the nurses come get you once I’m finished.”

The others immediately round on him once the doctor has gone.

“Babies?” Jaehwan nearly shouts just as Hakyeon asks, “and when were you going to tell us?”

Wonshik slumps back into his chair, “surprise.”

“Kim Wonshik!” Hakyeon throws his hands up in the air. “What is wrong with you?”

“We weren’t ready to tell anyone!”

“Have far along is he?” Hongbin takes the seat next to him and pats at his arm.

“15- no 16 weeks.” Wonshik rubs at his face. “He’s 16 weeks today.”

“That’s three months.” Hakyeon sounds almost hysterical. “When were you going to tell us? After the baby was born?”

“Babies.” Jaehwan corrects him, still looking dumbstruck. “Wonshik said babies earlier. There’s more than one.”  

“Twins are good.” Sanghyuk nods, as if he's trying to convince himself. “We can handle two babies. No problem. Two tiny babies. I’m definitely not going to smush them with my giant hands. Nope, not at all.”

“Three.” Wonshik mumbles.

“What?”

“Three babies.” Wonshik says. “We’re having triplets.”

“Right, okay.” Hakyeon says. “That’s okay. That’s totally fine.”

Jaehwan pushes him into a chair before his legs give out.

Sanghyuk looks pale, “three?”

“I know.”

“Three tiny babies?” Sanghyuk asks.

“I know.” Wonshik repeats.

 Hongbin squeezes Wonshik’s arm, “we’re going to be uncles!”

“Do you know how many diapers that’s going to be?” Jaehwan asks.

“I don’t want to think about it.” Wonshik says.

“It’s going to be okay.” Hongbin tells him. “We’ll be here to help you.”

It isn’t long after that that a nurse calls Wonshik through to see Taekwoon.

His husband offers him a timid smile when he steps through the door and Wonshik’s steps falter because Taekwoon looks so thin and exhausted and sick and it makes Wonshik’s heart _ache_.

“Hi.” Taekwoon whispers, unable to meet to Wonshik’s eyes.

Wonshik is at Taekwoon’s side and kissing him before he’s even realised he’s moved.

“Don’t ever do that again.” Wonshik begs him, still scared by the unnatural warmth to Taekwoon’s skin. “If you’re sick then you go to the doctors- you don’t let it get that bad again, okay? Promise me, Taek.”

“It’s just morning sickness.” Taekwoon murmurs. “I’m not the first person to go through it.”

Wonshik flinches.

“I was going to take Butt for a walk.” Taekwoon continues and he still doesn’t look at Wonshik. “But I felt dizzy and sick so I went back to bed and I- I don’t know. I think I threw up.”

“Have you been throwing up a lot?” Wonshik asks, realising he should have asked this weeks ago instead of brushing him off.

“I can’t eat.” Taekwoon hides his face in his hands. “I keep trying for the babies but I just _can’t_. The smell, it’s too much. I can’t even cook for you anymore.”

“I’m sorry.” Wonshik says and he really, truly means it. “I’m so sorry. I’m an idiot. Why did you listen to me? You never usually listen to me.”

“I thought I was being stupid.” Taekwoon admits.

“I’m sorry.” Wonshik says again. “Please don’t listen to me, okay? I’ve got no idea how this thing works.”

Taekwoon lets out a soft snort and drops his hands, “maybe we should read some books.”

“I will buy us a library’s worth.” Wonshik promises. “Just please… forgive me, please.”

Taekwoon kisses him then and Wonshik knows that, for now, they’re okay.

They’re going to be okay.


	4. Submerged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: allusions to depression

Wonshik sighs when he steps into their apartment and the carpet squelches under his feet.

It’s the second time this month.

He leaves his bag on the counter when he walks through the kitchen but he doesn’t stop on his journey through their apartment, heading straight to the bathroom.

“You need to stop doing this.” He says as he shuts the tap for the bath off. “The whole apartment is flooded. What happens if it leaks through into downstairs? Do you know how much trouble we’d be in?”

Taekwoon doesn’t answer him but Wonshik isn’t expecting him to. His boyfriend’s lips are blue and he looks washed out and thin in the harsh light of the bathroom.

“Come on, Taek.” He grabs him under the arms and hauls him upright, wincing when the freezing water makes contact with his skin. “Let’s get you warm and dry.”

Taekwoon flops against him like a doll and Wonshik worries like he always does when Taekwoon gets like this.

He lays Taekwoon on their bed and pats him dry before dressing him in his fleece pyjamas and bundling him up in their duvet and blankets.

Wonshik doesn’t bother with trying to mop dry their apartment floor, not for the moment, and instead changes into his sleep shirt and pants and crawls onto the bed. It’s more important that he’s with Taekwoon.

“Why do you keep doing this?” Wonshik asks once Taekwoon’s lips are pink again and his eyes aren’t so glassy.

“I’m sorry.” Taekwoon says and then he starts to cry. “Are you going to leave?”

“No.” Wonshik says but they both know his patience is wearing thin.

“I love you.” And the way Taekwoon says it is almost like he’s begging but, for what, Wonshik doesn’t know.

“I love you, too.” Wonshik responds and he tries to convince himself it’s true.

“I won’t do it again.” It’s a lie.

“I know.”

Wonshik wipes away Taekwoon’s tears and kisses his cold cheeks. He holds Taekwoon as he falls into an uneasy sleep and he wonders just how long he’ll be able to keep on doing this.


	5. Skin pulled taut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... hybrids? Don't let the warnings fool you, there's a happy ending.
> 
> Warnings: mentions of past abuse and dubious sexual consent (hybrids as sex slaves), disordered eating, self harm

Taekwoon stalks the halls of this mansion that is meant to be a home.

It’s cold – he’s cold – and none of it makes sense. He doesn’t understand why he’s here or what is expected of him. The collar his new master had given him is too tight and stiff around his throat and it cuts into the sensitive skin of his neck. He doesn’t know if it’s meant to be a punishment and he’s doesn’t dare ask.

It isn’t his place.

He is a pet and pets don’t ask questions of their masters. Taekwoon had learnt this a long time ago, when he had been a kitten and curious and his first master had rewarded that inquisitiveness with a black eye. His masters after that had been much the same and Taekwoon had quickly learnt to keep silent.

But he wants to speak to this new master, he wants to know what it expected of him. He’s been here four days now and even though he has presented himself to his new master each evening, stretched and slicked, the new master has yet to take him.

He doesn’t understand.

Why else would anyone buy him but to fuck him? He is very beautiful, he knows, having had countless men whisper it to him over the years, with the black of his fur and his hair contrasting starkly with the paleness of his skin. His figure is deliberately delicate – he knows his fragility is part of his allure and so he makes sure to only ever eat enough to keep him going – and the long fur of his tail is always meticulously groomed. He is the perfect pet.

So why hasn’t this new master fucked him yet?

Is he testing Taekwoon? Seeing if he’s good enough to fuck? What happens if he decides Taekwoon isn’t worth his energy? Will Taekwoon be sold again?

That frightens him.

Taekwoon is in twenties now and mature for a hybrid. He has perhaps only another decade left before he is no good to anyone and will be euthanised. Would another master want to invest in him? He is expensive even if he is not the youthful cat he once was, his body no longer free from scars. He is a pedigree and that comes with a price tag, no matter how old he gets.

He needs to make himself useful to this new master before he is sold once more.

It is hard, though. This master already has other hybrids – four loud, youthful dogs – who look at Taekwoon with uneasy eyes and demand their master’s full attention whenever Taekwoon steps close.    

He isn’t used to competition and so doesn’t know what to do when faced with it. He’s always been alone with his previous masters and had never been kept around for long once his replacement had been bought. It makes him uncomfortable.

Still, that hasn’t stopped him from presenting himself to the master each evening.

This new master likes to have a drink in his study before bed. Taekwoon sits at his feet, his hair carefully styled and his face perfectly made, and lets the master catch glimpses of his creamy skin through the loose robes he wears. He leans his head against the master’s thigh and forces himself to purr when the man runs his fingers through his hair.

It never goes any further than that though and Taekwoon doesn’t know what he’s doing wrong. He’s never had to do much more for his previous masters, they had always been ready to use him.

He is pulled from his thoughts when he hears the gong for dinner sound.

He freezes, berating himself for losing track of time, and thinks over his options.

He should have gone back to his room earlier to prepare for dinner – brushed his tail, painted his face and changed into more appealing clothes – and he doesn’t think he’ll have enough time now to do much even if he were to get to his room before the second gong. He can’t be late for dinner. That is another lesson Taekwoon had learnt the hard way.

Reluctantly he retraces his steps, anxiously tugging at his clothes and smoothing his hair, and arrives at the dining hall just as the second gong sounds. He keeps his chin pressed against his chest and makes himself as small as he can as he slinks into the room and takes his usual seat, the one furthest away from the master. The dogs always take the seats closest.

“Did the cat lose track of time?” One of the dogs – Jaehwan, Taekwoon thinks his name is – teases. “You don’t look as prim and proper as usual.”

“Or as pretty.” Sanghyuk, the youngest dog, adds.

Taekwoon’s cheeks flush red but he ignores them. They have no right to judge him. The dogs never take the time to make themselves look presentable for dinner like they should and instead turn up in ruffled and ripped clothes with their hair pointing in a hundred different directions. Taekwoon wonders when their master will finally lose his patience with them and punish them.

And what about his own punishment? Surely, it will be more severe than whatever the dogs will receive. Cats are held to a higher standard than dogs, their main purpose to look pretty for their masters, and Taekwoon is still new. He doubts a slip up this early in his time with this new master will be treated kindly.

However, the master doesn’t say anything and instead beckons them to start eating.

Dread settles in the pit of Taekwoon’s stomach. He knows that the punishment, when it comes, will be bad because the master has chosen to do it in private.

He forces down a couple of tiny bites before pushing the rest of his food around his plate and pretending to pay attention to the conversation going on around the table – something about a pond in one of the gardens – all the while trying to smother the anxiety blooming in his chest.

“Do all cats eat as little as you?”

It takes Taekwoon a moment to realise the question is being directed at him.

He blinks.

“I asked whether all cats ate as little as you.” The voice repeats itself. It’s the dog sat next to him, the one with the big forehead that Taekwoon never remembers the name of. “Or do you not like the food our master’s cooks prepare for us?”

“You don’t like the food?” Their master asks, having heard despite the noise the other dogs are making.

Taekwoon’s cheeks burn with embarrassment but he doesn’t dare to speak.

Nothing good has ever come of speaking.

“He’s only eaten two forkfuls.” The dog immediately supplies.

Taekwoon stares at his plate, not sure what else to do, and prays for the moment to pass- for their master to become distracted by one of the dogs.

He doesn’t.

“Taekwoon.” Their master says. “Come here.”

Taekwoon does as he’s told, moving to stand by their master’s chair with his head bowed and his hands folded in front of him.

The master raises his hand and Taekwoon immediately flinches, even if he tries not to, but all the man does is lay the back of his hand against Taekwoon’s forehead, as if he’s feeling for a fever.

“You don’t feel warm.” He says.

Taekwoon is confused.

“Go wait for me in my study.” The master commands. “I’ll be through once dinner is over.”

One of the dogs makes a sly comment but Taekwoon doesn’t really take in what he says. He instead concentrates on leaving the room as silently as he can.

When he gets to the master’s study he gets on his knees and waits by his chair, his eyes fixed on the floor.

A hundred different scenarios run through his head, each worse than the last, and he starts to feel sick as anxiety makes his breath come in short pants.

This punishment is going to be bad.

He wonders if this master will break his fingers like his first had or take his belt to the already scarred skin on his back. Maybe he’ll lock Taekwoon in his room for days on end without water or food or send him to work in the kitchen with the servants, let them have their fun with him. Maybe he’ll fuck Taekwoon so hard he bleeds.

“You’re shaking.”

Taekwoon jumps- he hadn’t heard the master enter the room.

“Take a seat on the stool, Taekwoon.” The master says, sitting in his chair and motioning towards the footstool he usually rests his feet on. “I don’t expect you to kneel, I can only imagine how sore your knees are from waiting for me.”

Taekwoon sits on the stool like he’s been told to but he doesn’t look at the master.

He waits.

“You don’t have any reason to be frightened, you’re not in trouble.” The master says after a while.

‘He’s lying.’ He immediately thinks because Taekwoon is always in trouble.

“How is your collar?” The master changes the subject, his hands coming up to feel at the thick leather at his throat. Taekwoon can almost hear the frown in his voice when he next speaks. “The skin on your neck is red raw! Why didn’t you say your collar was hurting you?”

Taekwoon doesn’t answer.

The master sighs and Taekwoon feels his warm hands on his neck. He tries not to tense at the feeling and instead leans into his touch, pretends to enjoy it.

“I can’t get the buckle loose.” The master says after a couple of minutes. “You’re not in too much pain, are you?”

Taekwoon shakes his head. He’s used to it now.

“I wish you would look at me when I speak.” The master brings his hands up to cup Taekwoon’s face, tilts his head so that Taekwoon has nowhere to look but at the master’s face. “You’re so beautiful, Taekwoon. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Taekwoon freezes, unsure what the master is expecting from him. Would he prefer that Taekwoon is shy and demure? Or does he want Taekwoon to be bold like the dogs? The master likes the dogs, always smiling at their brazen statements and wild jokes, and he wonders if he wants that from him, too.

He nods.

“Good.” The master’s smile is wide and Taekwoon knows he made the right decision. “I hope your previous master told you every day.”

Taekwoon nods again and earns himself a quick kiss on the tip of his nose.

“Have you enjoyed your first few days here with us?” The master asks, his hands coming up to play with Taekwoon’s hair and rub at his ears. “You’re so quiet it’s hard to tell. I hope the dogs don’t cause you too much bother, I’ve told them to treat you well.”

Taekwoon quirks the corners of his lips up into a smile.

“I like that you come to me on a night, you have a very calming presence.” The master says. “I hope you’ll come again tonight.”

Taekwoon knows a summons when he hears one.

He retreats to his room as soon as his master releases him and spends the hours until he is to return to the master’s study preparing himself. He brushes the soft fur of his tail until it gleams and rubs sweet smelling oils into his skin. He paints his cheeks pink and his lips red and lines his eyes with bold, black coal that he smudges at the corners. He dresses in his least favourite robe, the one that is so sheer it barely deserves the name but that all his previous masters had loved, and styles his hair so it falls into his eyes.

He admires himself in the mirror once he is done and he knows he looks very beautiful.

He hopes this new master will be satisfied.

He works himself open then, methodically and without any great pleasure, and takes a few deep breaths and forces himself to relax. It hurts less that way.

The master is in his chair when Taekwoon steps into the study.

Taekwoon is silent as he slinks into the room and the master, so engrossed in his book, doesn’t even notice he’s there until Taekwoon is crawling in his lap and pulling the book away so he can kiss him.

The master kisses him back and Taekwoon forces himself to purr. His hand goes to the master’s crotch, intending to slip his hand underneath the silk of his pyjama trousers, but as soon as his hand makes contact the master freezes.

Taekwoon stills, uncertain what he’s done wrong, and then the master pushes him from his lap.

“What are you doing?” The master shouts.

Taekwoon sneaks a look up at him before quickly lowering his eyes again when he catches sight of the anger on the master’s face.

“You are to never touch me like that again!” The master’s voice shakes but not as hard as Taekwoon does. “Do you understand, cat?”

Taekwoon nods and cowers away.

He’s terrified but he knows there’s no use in trying to get away, that running only makes things worse later, once he’s been caught, so he presses his head against the cold, stone floor and waits for his punishment.

It doesn’t come.

“Taekwoon.” The master’s voice is quieter now, calmer, but Taekwoon doesn’t move. “I don’t… In this house we don’t-. I didn’t buy you to bed you.”

Taekwoon doesn’t understand.

What other use does he have?

“Get up.”

Taekwoon gets to his feet.

The master retrieves something from his desk before coming to stand behind Taekwoon. The cat feels his warm fingers at his neck and wills himself to stop shaking even as the smell of oil fills his nostrils. He feels some of it trail down his neck, dripping from the master’s fingers and the metal buckle of his collar, and soak into the fabric of his robe.

“Sorry.” The master says and then the collar is falling away from his neck and Taekwoon can breathe properly for the first time in days.

His head swims.

“Go to your room.” The master sighs. “And clean your face. We won’t talk of this again.”

Taekwoon leaves.

Back in his room he scrubs his face and his body clean and scratches desperately at the soft skin of his inner arms, frustrated and frightened and unsure how else to express it because he can’t scream or shout or cry, and finally collapses to the floor when exhaustion claims him.

He crawls under the bed and doesn’t leave.

The master has servants bring food for him at meal times after he misses breakfast the morning _after_. At first they leave it on the table by the window, where he usually takes lunch, but a couple of mealtimes go by without him touching anything so they leave it on the floor next to bed where they know he’s hiding – because where else can he go? – and he takes only a couple of mouthfuls of the water they leave for him.

He feels lethargic. Unwanted and aimless. He had not enjoyed his life with his previous masters but at least he knew how to act and what his purpose was. Here he has nothing.

He is nothing.

He hopes the master will let him starve himself to death but, given the amount he had undoubtedly paid for him, he doubts it.

He’s right.

The master changes tactics.

Instead of a servant it is the dog who had sat next to him the last night he had attended dinner  that brings him lunch on the fifth day. He lays on his stomach, peers under the bed and chews loudly on the food he takes from the tray meant for Taekwoon.

“Master is worried.” He says once he’s finished his mouthful. “When are you going to come out?”

Taekwoon blinks back at him, too tired and sore to do anything more.

“I can always drag you out, you know.” The dog eats another mouthful. “You don’t look very strong so I doubt you’d put up much of a fight. That’s what Jaehwan and Sanghyuk want to do but master thinks you need _time_. What good is time except to let you starve yourself to death?

“It would be a shame if you were to die.” The dog continues. “None of us have ever really met a cat before and Hongbin thinks you’re very pretty. He’s asked master if we can take you shopping but really I think he wants to show you off.”

“I’m not pretty.”

It’s the first words that Taekwoon has spoken in years and his throat feels raw.

“You are.” The dog insists, acting as if Taekwoon speaking isn’t anything out of the ordinary. “For a cat, I mean. You’d make an ugly dog. Now, here- eat this.”

Taekwoon doesn’t know why he takes the chicken the dog thrusts into his face but he thinks it’s worth it for the smile he gets when he takes a tiny bite.

The dog – Wonshik, he soon learns -  sits with him during mealtimes from then on and, while he encourages Taekwoon to eat, he doesn’t try and force him out from his hiding spot.

“You feel safe under the bed, right?” Wonshik says one day. “Sanghyuk hides in his wardrobe when he’s had a nightmare. I don’t know how he fits. It doesn’t really matter, I guess. It makes him feel better so that’s all that matters.”

Wonshik talks a lot. About the master, the other dogs, his life with his mother before the master had bought him- he hides nothing.

And Taekwoon learns. He learns that Wonshik is happy here in this home with the master and Sanghyuk and Jaehwan and Hongbin, that the master doesn’t hit them or make them do anything they don’t want to. He learns that this is Wonshik and Jaehwan’s first home after leaving their mothers but that Hongbin and Sanghyuk had had other masters, that Hongbin’s had grown too old to look after him and Sanghyuk’s had been cruel.

Taekwoon doesn’t tell Wonshik anything but, strangely, he finds that he wants to.

He comes out from underneath the bed one night, two weeks after first going under, and even that small amount of movement is exhausting. Still, he cleans under the bed and bathes and combs his hair. He dresses in a soft sleeping shirt that drowns his emaciated figure and intends to sit waiting on the end of his bed for Wonshik to arrive with breakfast but he falls asleep instead.

He wakes hours later and Wonshik is laid at the other side of the bed, his eyes and his smile soft.

“Do you want some breakfast?” He asks once he sees Taekwoon is awake.

Taekwoon gets a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach.

It takes another couple of days for Taekwoon to work up the energy and the courage to leave his room but Wonshik doesn’t mind.

They take their meals together sat by the window and Wonshik holds his hand once they’re finished eating. This always makes Taekwoon blush but he never pulls away. He likes the flutters he gets in the pit of his stomach.

Wonshik holds his hand when Taekwoon goes down for dinner, his first meal with the master and the other dogs since _that day_ , and Jaehwan and Sanghyuk tease Wonshik about it mercilessly throughout their meal.

“Don’t be jealous.” Their master says to a sulking Hongbin. “I’m sure Taekwoon wants to be friends with you, too.”

Taekwoon finds himself nodding this time because it’s something that _he_ wants rather than what he thinks the master wants. He doesn’t remember ever wanting something purely for himself before and it feels nice.

“Remember, though,” Wonshik warns Hongbin, a possessive hand on Taekwoon’s forearm, “he’s my special friend.”

Taekwoon finds it isn’t hard to be friends with the dogs. They take him out into the gardens and show him all their favourite places and invite him to play games with them and Taekwoon, who has never done anything just for fun, struggles at first to understand the purpose of their games. That is until he sees Wonshik smiling and laughing and looking so _beautiful_ \- then he doesn’t want to stop.

The master is kind to him. He pets Taekwoon’s hair and teaches him to read and write so he can borrow books from the library and write little lists of the things he needs for the servants to take with them when they go to the market.

Taekwoon mainly uses his newfound writing ability to leave Wonshik soppy little notes about being _special friends_ and he feels his face glow red when he catches Wonshik reading them. He knows Wonshik keeps them, has seen the little draw in his bedside table stuffed with them, and that makes Taekwoon feel special.

He likes Wonshik.

“You’re smiling.” Wonshik says to him one evening.

They’re sat underneath a tree at the edge of the master’s property watching the sun set. Their clothes are rumpled and covered in dirt and Taekwoon is sure they’ve missed dinner but neither of them seem to mind. Their master won’t be mad.

“So?” Taekwoon’s voice is still hoarse but it’s growing stronger with every day.

“You’re happy.” Wonshik looks pleased.

“Maybe I am.” Taekwoon says.

“I lied to you, you know.” Wonshik tells him, his cheeks stained red. “It wasn’t Hongbin who thought you were pretty. It was me. I think you’re very pretty and I would like to kiss you. Is that okay?”

Taekwoon nods, blushing.

 Wonshik kisses him then, soft and sweet, and Taekwoon is glad that he doesn’t push for anything deeper before he pulls away.

“You’re so beautiful when you’re happy.” Wonshik tells him. “I hope you’ll be happy for a long time.”

Taekwoon takes Wonshik’s hand and gives it a gentle squeeze.

Here in this home, with Wonshik at his side, Taekwoon thinks he will be.


	6. So we are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Lulufarias38 who wanted alpha Ravi and omega Leo. I hope you like it!!
> 
> Warnings - smut (is that a warning?? Probably with my writing lol)

Wonshik grows up a disappointment.

His parents had been ecstatic when he’d presented as an alpha shortly after his seventh birthday. They’d taken him out for ice cream even though it was spring and still cold out and they had told him how proud they were of him.

Wonshik’s a couple of years older now and he doesn’t understand what’s so great about being an alpha.

The alphas have to play lots of sports and are expected to do well in subject like maths and science and Wonshik hates all those things. Still, he plays on the soccer team because he dislikes soccer the least out of all the sports his school offers and because it makes his parents happy. He tries really hard at school and does well at maths and science even if they give him a headache.

He starts to hate school.

Middle school is better because there’s more kids and more extracurricular activities for Wonshik to choose from.

He joins the school choir not because he can really sing but because he likes it. He’s the only alpha and his parents are so mad at him because singing is for omegas but they don’t make him drop it as long as he stays on the soccer team and continues to do well in his subjects.

He meets Hakyeon at choir practice. He’s a couple of years older and lives on the same street as Wonshik, even if they’ve never spoken. He is loud and funny and taller than any omega Wonshik has ever met but Wonshik likes him anyway.

They quickly become good friends.

Hakyeon thinks it’s okay for alphas to like music instead of sport and for them to be interested in pictures and colours instead of facts and figures. He drags Wonshik along to his dance classes and it’s fun, much more fun than soccer, so Wonshik quits the soccer team and does dance instead.

His parents are furious but he doesn’t care.

He picks up painting and photography in high school and learns to play the piano. He doesn’t go to dance classes anymore but only because he doesn’t have the time. Hakyeon still dances and he’s amazing at it. Wonshik goes to every one of his recitals and feels so proud of his friend when he gets showered in praise.

They try dating for a little while, when Hakyeon is in his final year, but it feels weird so they go back to being friends. Wonshik dates a few people after Hakyeon goes to college but he never really feels any kind of deeper connection with them. They don’t understand his love for art and music. It isn’t normal for an alpha.

He goes to the same college that Hakyeon does and majors in music. He rooms with a beta called Jaehwan who is loud and overbearing and so much like Hakyeon that Wonshik can’t help but like him. He introduces the two of them and they hit it off immediately. Wonshik thinks he would regret it if they weren’t so happy, quickly becoming the most disgustingly affectionate couple he has ever seen.

 Hakyeon is as bright as and brilliant as he was in high school and he seems to be friends with everyone on campus. He drags Wonshik and Jaehwan to so many different parties and meet ups and Wonshik finds himself making friends everywhere he goes. He gets a few odd looks sometimes when he tells people that he’s majoring in music – he is one of only a handful of alphas enrolled on his course – but no one makes fun of him for it.

Wonshik thrives.

His parents are still angry with him and they tell him that they’re disappointed in him but he doesn’t really care. They still love him, however much they don’t like his choices, and they always make sure he has enough money to see him through. His mother even comes to some of his performances. Wonshik thinks it’s enough for now.

After winter break Hakyeon introduces them to his roommate.

Wonshik had always been curious but Hakyeon had never really spoken about him too much. He had just said that the other omega was coming out of a bad relationship and needed some time to get himself together again. There’s a fierce protectiveness in Hakyeon’s voice that Wonshik isn’t used to whenever he talks about his roommate and that just makes Wonshik all the more curious.

Taekwoon is nothing like he imagined him to be. He is tall and thin and his sharp face is always pulled into a sullen expression. He looks nothing like an omega. He doesn’t talk to anyone other than Hakyeon but Wonshik tries anyway because he’s one of Hakyeon’s best friends and it’s important to him.

He takes Taekwoon for coffee when Hakyeon and Jaehwan go to another party. Hakyeon had suggested it because Taekwoon doesn’t really do parties and Wonshik is getting tired of them. He expects it to be awkward and it is for a little while. Taekwoon fiddles with his mug and doesn’t really look at him. He definitely doesn’t speak and so Wonshik fills the silence with anything that he can think of: stories of his and Hakyeon’s childhood, what he’s been doing in class that week and his love of music. Taekwoon perks up when he mentions music and he asks one question that has Wonshik rambling for hours, nodding and hiding shy smiles behind his hands. Wonshik thinks it’s adorable.  

He walks Taekwoon back to his dorm once the coffee shop closes and, in an uncharacteristically bold move, asks Taekwoon for his number.

Taekwoon blushes and shakes as he taps his number into Wonshik’s phone before disappearing into his building without a backwards glance. Wonshik smiles all the way back to his dorm and waits until he’s showered and in bed before messaging Taekwoon. He gets a reply back within minutes.

They agree to meet up for coffee again a couple of days later and Wonshik does most of the talking again. Taekwoon asks more questions, though, and gives short answers to the ones that Wonshik asks in return.

It’s progress.

They go for coffee once or twice a week after that. Slowly, slowly Taekwoon starts to open up to him and tells him a bit about himself. He likes singing and playing the piano. He likes to play sports, too, and had wanted to be on the soccer team when he’d been at school but his parents had forbidden him from doing so because they didn’t think it was fitting for an omega.

It gives Wonshik an idea.

He has Taekwoon meet him on the playing fields one Saturday morning, tells him to wear sweats and sneakers, and Wonshik borrows a soccer ball from one of his friends from down the hall.  

“I thought we could play.” Wonshik says, blushing, when Taekwoon arrives at the field and gives him a questioning look. “But we don’t have to if-.”

“No.” Taekwoon interrupts and then he, too, blushes. “I want to.”

They set up goals using their sweaters and water bottles and they start to play. The air is still cold and the field is wet and muddy so they slide around but it’s fun. Wonshik isn’t expecting Taekwoon to be good – he’s never really heard of omegas doing well at sports – but Taekwoon is a better player than he is and is leading ten goals to three when they finally decide to call it a day.

“You should join the soccer team.” Wonshik says when they start on their way back to the dorm buildings. “You’re really good.”

They’re sweaty and caked in mud but Wonshik thinks he’s never seen anyone look so beautiful when Taekwoon smiles at him.

“Do you think so?” Taekwoon asks.

“Yeah.” Wonshik nods, cheeks flushed and heart pounding in his chest. “They’d be idiots to not have you.”

He sits in the bleachers when Taekwoon tries out for the team and then again for all of Taekwoon’s practices. He can’t keep his eyes off of him. The omega looks so happy and Wonshik can’t help the fluttery feeling he gets in his chest whenever he smiles.

“You should ask him out.” Hakyeon says one day. He’s draped over Jaehwan on the beta’s bed, flicking through a magazine as his boyfriend plays a game on his phone. “You’re both so obviously besotted with each other.”

“I didn’t know people still used the word besotted.” Wonshik grumbles, sticking his feet into his sneakers, and pretends to not know what his best friend is talking about.

“Seriously, Wonshik, I’ve never seen him so happy.” Hakyeon gives him an unamused look. “And you either, for that matter. It would be good for both of you.”

“Yeah, you guys should just fuck already.” Jaehwan is as crude as ever and it earns him a slap on the back of his head from Hakyeon. “Ow, what was that for?”

“Just ask him out.” Hakyeon says. “He won’t say no.”

But Taekwoon does.

Wonshik asks him out after soccer practice that night and Taekwoon freezes and starts to sweat, looking anywhere but at Wonshik, and he says no.

They don’t see each other for the next week, they don’t even talk.

Wonshik spends much of it moping around his room and Jaehwan is sympathetic and gives him his space. He doesn’t see much of Hakyeon but when he does the omega looks tired and upset.

“I’m sorry.” He says. “I thought he- I’m sorry.”

Wonshik is crushed.

He likes Taekwoon so much. His alpha instincts are screaming at him to track him down and claim him, make him belong to Wonshik, but he doesn’t give in to them. He can’t force Taekwoon to like him back. Instead he lets the hurt that bubbles up in his chest flood through his being until every last bit of him _aches_.

He listens to his music too loud. He snaps at Jaehwan and Hakyeon. He presses down so hard when he writes that the pencil snaps. He writes songs that are twisted and sad and angry.

He doesn’t know how to stop thinking about Taekwoon and he doesn’t know if he wants to.

He loves him, he realises, and that just makes him hurt so much more.

But then Taekwoon messages him and something like hope flutters in Wonshik’s chest.

They agree to meet at the coffee shop where it had all started and Wonshik orders Taekwoon’s favourite drink without thinking. The omega isn’t there yet but Wonshik is a little bit early. Their drinks will be at the perfect drinking temperature for when Taekwoon shows up.

Except Taekwoon doesn’t arrive when he’s meant to. First five, then ten, fifteen, twenty minutes go by and their drinks go cold.

The hope in Wonshik’s chest slowly dies.

He gets up and puts his jacket on, his movements jerky and uncoordinated, and he has to take deep shuddering breaths to keep himself from sobbing. It’s just when he’s about to shuck his backpack on that he hears the door open.

It’s Taekwoon.

He’s a mess. His hair is greasy and unkempt, his skin sickly pale and the smudges under his eyes as black as bruises. It makes Wonshik’s heart clench painfully in his chest.

“I’m sorry.” Taekwoon says as soon as he’s close enough. He wraps his arms around Wonshik’s waist and buries his cold nose into the soft skin of the alpha’s neck. “I’m so sorry.”

It takes a moment for Wonshik’s brain to catch up but when it does he wraps his arms around Taekwoon and holds him close.

“It’s okay.” Wonshik says even if he doesn’t know what Taekwoon is apologising for. “It’s all okay.”

He breathes in the omega’s scent and wishes he could drown in it. It feels unreal to be this close after a week apart, especially as in the few months they’ve known each other they’ve never once hugged before.

“I love you.” Taekwoon whispers into his ear. “But I was scared so I pushed you away. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m such an idiot. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Wonshik says.

Taekwoon pulls away just far enough so he can look Wonshik in the eye, “you do?”

“Yes.” Wonshik kisses him briefly on the lips. “God, yes. Being away from you this week has been like torture.”

“I’m sorry.” Taekwoon says again but Wonshik doesn’t want to hear it, not really.

“Sit down, I’ll get us fresh drinks.” Wonshik says. “We should talk.”  

And they do.

Taekwoon tells Wonshik about his last boyfriend, how Taekwoon had met him in his first semester at college and he was big and brash and everything Taekwoon had been taught an alpha should be. It had been the first time anyone had ever shown any interest in him and Taekwoon – young and stupid and naïve as he had been – had fallen for him fast.

“Hakyeon didn’t like him.” Taekwoon mutters. “I should have listened to him but I was so stupid. I thought I was in love but he didn’t love me. Not really. He just liked having someone to control and I fell for it. I did everything he said but somehow it was still all wrong. He would get so _mad_.”

‘He hurt me.’ Taekwoon doesn’t say but Wonshik hears it.

“We were together for two years.” Taekwoon tells him and there are tears in his eyes. “And I wasn’t even the one who ended it. He’d been cheating on me with someone else for a while and then, when he finally left me for him, I lost it. I should have been happy or relieved or something but I ended up having a breakdown and having to drop out of school instead. How pathetic is that?”

“It’s not pathetic.” Wonshik assures him. He reaches across the table and links his fingers with Taekwoon’s. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Taekwoon looks down at the table, obviously uncomfortable at the tenderness in Wonshik’s voice, and asks, “do you still want me? After knowing all that?”

“Yeah.” Wonshik squeezes Taekwoon’s hand. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t…” Taekwoon looks unsure. “We’re going to have to go slow.”

“We have all the time in the world.” Wonshik tells him and he means it.

He can hardly believe that Taekwoon likes him back, he’s not going to waste this opportunity now he has it- especially not when he knows how much it hurts to be without him.

It takes them a couple of weeks to get back to how they had been and then a few more before Taekwoon gets comfortable with holding hands and kissing. For the longest time it looks like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop and it pains Wonshik to know how badly Taekwoon has been hurt. But then that, too, passes.

It’s after finals and the last night before they go their separate ways for the summer that Taekwoon indicates that he wants to take the next step.

“Are you sure?” Wonshik asks.

They’d been lying in Taekwoon’s bed, kissing and touching, when Taekwoon’s hand had slipped underneath the waistband of Wonshik’s sweats.

“I want this.” Taekwoon tells him.

Their lips smash together with renewed vigour and Taekwoon takes him in his hand. Wonshik gasps into their kiss and Taekwoon lets out a breathy chuckle.

“Have you ever..?”

“Twice.” Wonshik answers honestly and then bites back a moan as Taekwoon starts to stroke him into hardness.

It doesn’t take long.

They shed their clothes between heavy kisses and Wonshik needs a minute to soak up the sight of Taekwoon once they’re finally nude.

“What?” He asks.

“You’re so beautiful.” He answers.

Taekwoon blushes and hits him on the shoulder, “you’re so cheesy.”

Wonshik laughs until Taekwoon kisses him again and steals his breath away.

Wonshik bucks up into him and grinds their erections together and this time it is Taekwoon who is gasping. Wonshik’s hands slide down Taekwoon’s back and to his ass, pulling him closer, and he lets out a groan at the increased friction of their erections rubbing against each other.

“Do you..?” Wonshik asks, sucking a bruise into Taekwoon’s shoulder. “We don’t have to.”

Taekwoon answers by reaching over and pulling a small bottle of lube and a condom from his top drawer.

“You planned this.” Wonshik pouts.

Taekwoon laughs, “maybe.”

Wonshik strokes himself and watches with hooded eyes as Taekwoon pours lube onto his fingers and begins to work himself open.

“I wish you wouldn’t watch.” Taekwoon murmurs and the skin of his cheeks and his chest is flushed.

“Then let me do it for you.” Wonshik says.

Taekwoon looks suddenly nervous and Wonshik immediately backs down.

“That’s fine.” He covers his eyes with one hand and squeezes them shut. “Just let me hear you.”

“You’re an idiot.” But there’s a gratefulness in Taekwoon’s voice that makes Wonshik’s heart twist.

Wonshik strokes himself to the sound of Taekwoon’s little moans and gasps and he imagines just how beautiful the omega looks preparing himself for Wonshik’s dick.

“You sound so good.” He breathes.

Taekwoon’s hand knocks his own away and Wonshik feels him roll the condom on and even that feels amazing. He starts to get nervous he won’t last long once they actually get going.

He feels Taekwoon straddles him. He jerks his head forwards, looking for Taekwoon’s lips, and he must catch Taekwoon in the face with his hand because the omega hisses in pain.

“Oh, shit, are you-.”

But Taekwoon cuts him off with a kiss.

“Keep your eyes closed.” Taekwoon says after they break apart. When Wonshik nods, Taekwoon pulls his hands to rest on his hips and Wonshik holds on tightly. “Don’t open your eyes, okay?”

“Okay.” Wonshik agrees.

And then Taekwoon sinks down onto him.

“Oh, _God_.” Wonshik hisses and he has to stop himself from bucking up into the omega’s heat. “Shit, Taekwoon.”

Taekwoon nearly pulls all the way off before dropping back down and Wonshik swears he sees stars. He does it again and again and the sound of flesh on flesh and Taekwoon’s heavy breathing rings loud in Wonshik’s ears. He digs his fingers into Taekwoon’s hips before loosening his hold again, not wanting to hurt him.

“It’s okay.” Taekwoon’s usually soft voice sounds wrecked. “Just- just _move_.”

Wonshik doesn’t need to be told twice and he meets Taekwoon’s every movement with thrusts of his own.

He squeezes his eyes closed despite desperately wanting to look and brings one of his hands to Taekwoon’s dick. He can feel it throbbing as he smears the precome down his length and then begins to jerk him off.

It’s all so fast and messy and desperate but it feels good, too, so much better than the quick fumbles Wonshik had had in the past.

“Wonshik.” Taekwoon moans. “Wonshik, _please_.”

Wonshik wants to push Taekwoon onto his back and take him hard and deep but he doesn’t. He thinks Taekwoon needs this, needs to feel like he’s in control, and Wonshik won’t deny him that.

“You feel so good.” Wonshik tells him instead and there’s warmth pooling in his belly. “Fuck, I’m so close.”

Taekwoon drops back down onto him one last time and Wonshik feels him clench around him and he feels the splatter of come against his hand. He moans right in Wonshik’s ear and it’s enough to push him over the edge.

Taekwoon slumps against him and Wonshik kisses his sweaty neck once and then twice.

“Can I open my eyes?”

“Yeah.” Taekwoon nods and he pulls off and sits back further on the bed.

Wonshik blinks his eyes open and it takes them a minute or two to adjust before he can see properly again.

Taekwoon is smiling at him.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Taekwoon says.

He takes Wonshik’s hand, the one smeared with his come, and brings it to his mouth. They make eye contact as Taekwoon slowly and thoroughly licks his hand clean.

“Holy shit.” Wonshik says and his dick twitches. “You won’t let me look at you during sex but then you’ll stare me down when you- _shit_. That was hot, that was really fucking hot.”

Taekwoon blushes.

Wonshik laughs and surges forwards to catch Taekwoon’s lips in a kiss.

“I love you.” He says.

Taekwoon smiles, “I love you, too.”


	7. Sickly sweet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off that video of that man coming around from anaesthesia and hitting on his wife.
> 
> Also one of the fluffiest things I've ever written ???

Wonshik blinks awake.

There’s a man sat in the chair next to his bed and he’s… he’s the most beautiful man that Wonshik has ever seen. He has pretty black hair, soft pink lips and small feline eyes that are looking at him as if he’s the only person in the room.

And maybe Wonshik is the only person in the room. He doesn’t know, he hasn’t looked. He’s just woken up and he feels dreamy and distant but really _nice_ , too. He smiles.

“Hi.” The man says and Wonshik wants to bundle himself up in his voice and bask in its softness. “How are you feeling?”

Wonshik looks around and, _yes_ , he’s the only one in the room. The man is talking to him!

He psyches himself up to respond, not wanting to embarrass himself in front of someone so handsome, but his mind is empty and his lips feel thick and uncoordinated.

“Wonshik, are you okay?” The man asks, his brow now furrowed in concern.

“You know my name!” Wonshik gushes and there are little butterflies flapping about in his stomach.

“Of course I know your name.” The man answers.

“You do?” Wonshik asks even if it’s obvious from having just said it that the man does, in fact, know his name.

“Wonshik, I’ve known-.”

“You’re very pretty.” Wonshik cuts him off and gives him his best smile. “Really, very pretty.”

 The man blushes and ducks his head and Wonshik thinks even the crown of his head is beautiful.

“You’re so… You’re so _wow_. Are you a model?”

“No.”

“You should be.” Wonshik tells him and he feels a little bit hurt when the man laughs at him. “Hey, heeey… Don’t be mean. Why are you laughing?”

The man pulls himself to his feet and brushes some of Wonshik’s hair from his forehead, “because you’re still waking up and it’s very funny.”

“Your hands are soft.” Wonshik says, not really taking the man’s words in. “Can I hold them? I’ll be really careful.”

The man laughs again but he lets Wonshik hold one of his hands anyway. He squeezes it tight and lets out a little gasp of surprise when the man squeezes back.

“You’re so cute.” The man says.

He’s smiling and his smile is so beautiful that Wonshik wants to cry. He tries not to because he doesn’t think that his crying face is very attractive and he wants to be attractive for this man.

“Who are you?” He asks.

“Taekwoon.” The man – _Taekwoon_ – tells him.

Wonshik repeats the name and it feels so good on his tongue that he says it again and again.

“What are you doing?” Taekwoon asks.

“Taekwoon.” Wonshik singsongs once more and then he confesses in a whisper, “it feels so nice to say.”

“I should film this.” Taekwoon says and he tries to pull his hand away but Wonshik won’t let go. He laughs again. “Sanghyuk would-.”

“Sanghyuk?” Wonshik interrupts. “Who is that?”

“Our friend.” Taekwoon tells him. “He’d find this very funny.”

“Is he- is he your boyfriend?”

“What? No.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Wonshik asks, suddenly feeling nervous.

Taekwoon shakes his head, “I’m married.”

Wonshik drops his hand and clutches his chest as tears well in his eyes.

“You’re… You’re married?”

“Yeah.” Taekwoon takes his hand again. “To you.”

Wonshik’s heart nearly stops, “you’re married to me? But you’re- you’re so _hot_.”

Taekwoon laughs.

“Wow.” Wonshik says, unable to get his head around this new information. “Wow… We’re married?”

“Yeah.”

“Did I- I want to sit up.” Wonshik tries to pull himself upright but Taekwoon holds him down on the bed and murmurs something about waiting for the nurse. “I need to- _wow_. We’re married? You’re my husband?”

“You can see my ring, can’t you?”

Wonshik takes a closer look at Taekwoon’s hands and he can indeed see the silver band on his left ring finger.

“Did I give that to you?” He asks.

Taekwoon nods, “and I have yours safe in my wallet- you had to take it off for your surgery.”

“Wow.” Wonshik says. “Have we- have we kissed?”

“Lots of times.”

Wonshik’s jaw drops.

He’s kissed the most beautiful man in the world!

“Why… Why would you let me do that?” He asks. “You’re so pretty.”

“Because I love you, you idiot.” Taekwoon brings Wonshik’s hand up to his lips and kisses it. “I love you very, very much.”

“I can hardly believe it.” Wonshik murmurs around a yawn. “You love me?”

“Of course.” Taekwoon says.

“I’m going to fall asleep.” Wonshik tells him, already feeling his eyes grow heavy.

“That’s okay.” Taekwoon’s smile softens. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“I’m going to- I’m going to dream about you.” Wonshik hugs Taekwoon’s hand to his chest.

“That’s really sweet.” Taekwoon says.

Wonshik lets his eyes slip shut and mumbles, “I’m going to dream about fucking you.”

“And that wasn’t quite as sweet.” He hears Taekwoon say.

“So good.” Wonshik croons, smiling to himself. “I’m going to fuck you so good.”

“Oh my God.” Taekwoon sounds horrified. “Just go to sleep.”

Wonshik falls asleep.


	8. Stutter and Start (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A follow up to 'Surprise.' 
> 
> To siezzy who wanted fluff and Wonshik running around trying to sate Taekwoon's craving. This is probably not what you had in mind! I'm sorry!!
> 
> This is turning out super long so I've decided to split it into two parts. While there is fluff, you should also know that this has come as a result of reading too many scary reddit threads. Hope that gives you an idea of where this is going!!
> 
> Warnings: mpreg, pregnancy related illness

They move house.

It’s a last-minute decision and it really isn’t the best time but they realise once they start looking into buying the babies’ cribs that there just isn’t enough room in the apartment. The spare bedroom, what is currently Taekwoon’s study, is nothing more than a box room and there isn’t enough for one crib let alone three. So, they move.

It all happens very quickly. They spend one full Saturday looking at a handful of immediately available houses around a couple of different neighbourhoods and then on the Sunday they go back to visit their favourite three. It isn’t even lunch time before they’re paying the deposit and picking up the keys.

“We were always going to buy our own place.” Wonshik says when he lets them into their house – because it is their house now – that afternoon. “It’s just happening a bit sooner than we’d planned, that’s all.”

The house is mostly ready to move into, the walls just need a fresh lick of paint and they have to get new carpet laid, and that had played a huge part in their decision. It’s big, too, with a study, a kitchen and a separate dining room on the ground floor and four bedrooms and a house bathroom upstairs. There’s a basement, too, but the stairs are a bit too steep for either of them to trust Taekwoon walking down them. Wonshik’s had a look, though, and he tells Taekwoon that it’ll need a lot of work before they can use it but that’s fine because they already have plenty of space- more than they really know what to do with.

They make arrangements for new carpets to be laid at the end of the next week so that they have time to paint the walls in the next few days. They spend Sunday evening at the hardware store picking paints even if Taekwoon wants nothing more than to go home and _sleep_. They haven’t even started packing yet and he already feels stressed and exhausted.

It’s too late notice for Wonshik to take any time off work that week so on Monday and Tuesday evening he meets Sanghyuk, Hongbin and Jaehwan at the new house and they paint until late into the night. Taekwoon feels terrible for not helping but Wonshik doesn’t want him anywhere near the fumes from the paint. Taekwoon understands why Wonshik is being so cautious: he’d had another few spells in hospital with his morning sickness in the first few weeks following the first and now, when they’d finally thought things were going okay, the doctor is worried about Taekwoon’s blood pressure. He understands why Wonshik is scared because he is too. But, still, he can’t help but get upset at being so useless.

“You’re not useless.” Hakyeon tells him. He’s been put on ‘baby-sitting duty’ and is helping Taekwoon pack things away at the apartment while the others are over at the house. “He’s just worried about you. You’ve been really sick, Taek, and that scares him.”

Taekwoon isn’t much use packing, either. He tries to do as much as he can during the day while Wonshik and the others are at work but he never manages to get as much done as he wants to. He’s 26 weeks along now and his belly is huge. It gets in the way and makes his back ache terribly so he’s very limited to what he can do without crippling himself. He makes all the difficult phone calls instead, the ones he knows Wonshik hates making, and organises the cable, internet, water, gas and electricity for their new house and gets the accounts for the apartment closed. He talks to the landlord, too, and shows prospective tenants around the apartment when they arrive for viewings.

Wonshik takes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work the week after and they spend those three days packing up the apartment in earnest. Wonshik is exhausted even if he tries to pretend he isn’t and it makes Taekwoon so miserable that he can’t help but lock himself in the bathroom and cry.

“Why are you so upset?” Wonshik asks when Taekwoon emerges after one of his crying fits, embarrassed and angry.

“You’re working so hard.” Taekwoon says and immediately starts to tear up again. “And I’ve been such a waste of space.”

“You’re being stupid.” Wonshik tells him with a snort. “You’re already working so hard to make sure our babies get here safely. I can’t ask anything more from you.”

Still, Taekwoon feels terrible and he ends up pushing himself further than he should.

“I thought you’d get a kick out of watching us slave away.” Jaehwan teases as he helps pack up the last of the boxes on the Friday night.

Taekwoon, laid on the sofa with his heavily swollen feet propped up on a mountain of pillows and his entire body _aching_ , can’t think of anything witty to say so he just glares instead.

They hire a van for the Saturday and Sunday and their friends spend the whole weekend helping them pack everything into it and driving it across to the new house. Taekwoon isn’t much help there, just getting in the way more often than not, so he spends most of Saturday sat on the old bench in their new backyard with Butt, bundled up in a multitude of layers to keep away the bite of the October air, while the dog investigates the yard and naps at Taekwoon’s feet. On Sunday he cleans their now empty apartment from top to bottom, ready to hand over to the new tenants, and he tries to ignore the headache pounding away behind his eyes.

By the time that Sunday evening rolls around, their furniture is all in place and the boxes are in the right rooms waiting to be unpacked. Hakyeon helps him make the bed while Wonshik and Hongbin go get groceries and something for dinner. Sanghyuk and Jaehwan scream and shriek and sound like they’re doing anything but what they’re meant to be doing which is cleaning the kitchen. The noise just makes Taekwoon’s head hurt all the more, even from the storey above.

“Are you okay?” Hakyeon asks when they’re about half way through.

“Yeah.” Taekwoon nods, knowing he’s being more quiet than usual. “It’s just a lot to take in.”

“Moving house is stressful enough, I can’t imagine doing it while pregnant.” Hakyeon says. He’s the only other carrier in their friendship group and understands a bit more what Taekwoon is going through than the others. “What’s it like? Being pregnant, I mean.”

Taekwoon has to think for a while.

“Exhausting.” He says at last. “The babies are always the most active at night so I can never sleep and I’m always so sore and aching but it’s nice, too. I like to feel them moving, it’s… it’s comforting. I know they’re okay as long as they’re moving around.”

Hakyeon’s face softens and he pulls Taekwoon into a hug.

“Everything’s going to be okay.” He says and Taekwoon tries to believe him.

Hongbin takes him to his hospital appointment the next morning because Wonshik is back at work. They’re every week now because Taekwoon’s blood pressure is too high and the babies are on the small side and the doctor wants to keep a close eye on them. There are a lot of tests and Taekwoon has to suffer through being poked and prodded but it’s worth it because he gets to see the babies when the doctor does an ultrasound at the end.

It’s the first time Hongbin’s taken him to one of his appointments so his eyes grow round and his mouth drops open when he sees the babies on the screen for the first time.

“Your nieces and nephew.” Taekwoon says with a proud smile. He’s surprised when Hongbin bursts into tears. “What? Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know.” Hongbin answers, wiping at his face. “I just- thank you. Thank you for letting me be here with you.”

Taekwoon flushes and doesn’t know what to say so he just pats Hongbin on the arm instead.

They leave the hospital a small while later. Taekwoon has been given medication for his blood pressure and his hospital appointments have been increased to twice a week. He feels scared because the doctor had talked about steroid injections and early delivery and Taekwoon just isn’t ready for the babies to be born yet.  

Hongbin is apologetic when he drops Taekwoon at the bottom of his drive, “I’m sorry I can’t walk you in but I’ve really got to get to work. The appointment took longer than I thought it would and my boss-.”

“It’s okay.” Taekwoon cuts him off. He feels guilty for making Hongbin late for work but, selfishly, he doesn’t want him to go. He feels scared and shaky and he doesn’t want to be alone. He forces a smile, “I’ll be okay- go to work before you get in trouble.”

Hongbin looks uncertain but with one last look at his watch he nods and says his goodbyes. Taekwoon waves him off, one hand resting on his huge belly, and he bites his lip to keep himself from crying.

He’s about halfway up the drive when a voice stops him.

“I’ve not see you here before.” There’s a man stood a little bit further down the street, over by the neighbour’s trashcans, but he looks a bit too ragged and dirty to actually be their new neighbour. “Have you just moved in?”

“Yes.” Taekwoon answers, digging his keys out of his bag. “Just yesterday.”

“You’re very pretty.” The man says.

“Thank you.” Taekwoon blushes and he feels awkward. He doesn’t want to make small talk with this strange man. All he wants is to be inside with Wonshik on the other side of the phone, telling him everything is going to be okay. He makes his excuses, “I need to go inside now- I need to call my husband.”

“Okay.” The man says with a small shrug. “I’ll see you around.”

Taekwoon feels his gaze on his back all the way into the house.

He calls Wonshik as soon as Butt’s stopped barking and fussing over him and he tries not to cry down the phone when he tells him what the doctor had said.

“Why won’t anything go right?” Taekwoon asks, his encounter with the man already forgotten, and his voice wobbles.

“It’ll be okay.” Wonshik says, trying his best to sound positive. “But I think we should maybe start buying things for the nursery. We want to be ready for when they get here.”

The house they’ve moved into is in the nicer end of an okay neighbourhood and only a ten minute drive from Hakyeon’s dance studio. That means that Hakyeon is close enough to drop around on his lunch break so he does. Taekwoon thinks Wonshik’s asked him to keep an eye on him and to make sure he’s eating but Taekwoon is glad for the company. The house is older than anywhere Taekwoon has lived before and he finds the creaking and groaning it emits unsettling. Even Butt doesn’t like it, growling and barking at any sudden creaks and constantly getting under Taekwoon’s feet.

Hakyeon usually brings food over with him and they eat at the kitchen island, eyes glued to Taekwoon’s laptop as they search the web for nursery furniture and pushchairs for Taekwoon to show Wonshik when he gets home from work that night. Not that Taekwoon actually does because their attention is usually elsewhere but he bookmarks all his favourites.

Someone joins them for dinner every night that first week and Wonshik and whoever it is work through unpacking boxes. Taekwoon tries his best to do what he can during the day when he’s alone but he’s so tired all the time that he doesn’t get much done. They understand.

He doesn’t sleep on a night. He just can’t seem to get comfortable – his belly is just too big – and the babies are always kicking and moving and making it impossible to nod off. He tries anyway, always going to bed with Wonshik and Butt at the end of the day, but after an hour or two of listening to his husband and their dog snoring he feels like he’s going to lose his temper. He gets up instead and pulls on his biggest, thickest hoodie, even if it’s a tight fit these days, and shuffles downstairs. He gets a popsicle from the freezer and cocoons himself in blankets on the sofa and watches cartoons on Netflix until the sun rises.

The house is always the scariest at night, the creaking louder, almost like footsteps, and Butt, who usually follows him downstairs, will sit at his feet tense and on guard.

The weekend comes.

Taekwoon is already downstairs after another bad night with barely any sleep when Wonshik joins him in the kitchen, his hair spectacularly mussed and marks on his face from his pillow, and he kisses Taekwoon on the cheek.

Taekwoon glares but Wonshik is oblivious, too busy looking for something to eat for breakfast.

“Did you not sleep well?” He asks around a mouthful of cereal a little while later, finally noticing Taekwoon’s tense shoulders and angry expression.

“You ate my crackers.” Taekwoon accuses and he tries his best to keep the tremors from his voice.

He’s only craved crackers and popsicles through his pregnancy so far and Wonshik is usually so good at keeping the house well stocked with both. He feels hurt that his husband would eat his crackers when he knows how much Taekwoon craves them.

“What? No, I didn’t.”

“You did.” Taekwoon says. “I went to get some but there weren’t any in the cupboard. There was a whole pack in there yesterday.”

“I didn’t touch- hey, what’s wrong, baby?”

Wonshik cups his face in his hands and Taekwoon, exhausted and hungry, leans into his touch and lets himself breakdown.

“Taek, what’s wrong?” Wonshik looks worried.

“I wanted crackers!” Taekwoon sobs.

Wonshik’s expression grows amused, “is that it? Are you seriously crying about crackers?”

Taekwoon knows he’s being silly, “I wanted some.”

“Come here.” Wonshik pulls him close but it’s awkward because Taekwoon’s belly is so big it gets in the way. Still, he finds a way to cry into Wonshik’s neck, even if the angle hurts.

Wonshik rubs his back until he’s finished, waiting for Taekwoon to pull away. It’s a while before Taekwoon is ready to leave his husband’s arms.

“Do you want me to go to the store?” Wonshik asks.

Taekwoon sniffs.

“I’ll go if you want me to.” Wonshik says. “It’d be good to go for a walk around the neighbourhood and I can get us something nice for lunch, too, while I’m out. I’m sure Butt could do with the exercise, too.”

“You’d really do that?” Taekwoon asks.

Wonshik kisses him, “yeah, of course. I love you, Taekwoon.”

But that just sets Taekwoon off crying again.

“You need some sleep.” Wonshik says and his face creases with concern. It makes Taekwoon more upset. “You look so exhausted, baby. Why don’t you try and get some sleep on the sofa while I go to the store? That should help.”

Taekwoon lets himself be led to the sofa and pushed down onto the soft cushions. He’s asleep before Wonshik even finishes covering him with a blanket.

He wakes some time later and he hears Wonshik in the kitchen. He thinks about calling out and asking for a glass of water – his throat is scratchy and dry – but his eyelids are still too heavy and the pull of sleep too strong.

The next time he wakes Wonshik is kneeling in front of him, his cheeks pink and his hair windswept, and he has his cold hands on Taekwoon’s face.

“Hey.” He says. “Sorry I took so long, I got lost on the way back. I ended up at the other end of the neighbourhood- I had to call Hakyeon to give me directions on how to get back.”

Taekwoon smiles sleepily at him, not really taking in anything his husband is saying. His brain feels thick with fog and his limbs heavy and sore.

“Are you feeling okay?” Wonshik asks. “You feel warm.”

“Y’cold.” Taekwoon slurs back at him.

“Go back to sleep.” Wonshik tells him and he does.

Sanghyuk is staring at him when he next comes to. He’s sat in the armchair to Taekwoon’s left, an empty plate on his lap and Butt at his feet.

“Hey.” Sanghyuk says. “I didn’t think you were going to wake up any time this century.”

“Wonshik?” Taekwoon mumbles.

He doesn’t feel well.

“He’s in the kitchen, do you want me to get him for you?”

“Help me up.” Taekwoon holds his hands out for Sanghyuk to grab. “I’m going to be sick.”

Sanghyuk almost trips up over himself and Butt to get to Taekwoon. He hauls him to his feet and then all but carries him out of the living room, into the hall and to the small downstairs bathroom.

Taekwoon throws up in the sink.

He hasn’t eaten at all that day so it’s mostly bile and spit. He can see Sanghyuk pulling a face in the mirror over the sink but he feels too miserable to care about how gross this is. He feels like crying but he doesn’t because Wonshik is suddenly there, cupping his face and feeling his forehead, and he looks frightened.  

“Taekwoon?”

“I’m okay.” He says. It’s been a couple of weeks since he’d last thrown up and it hasn’t gotten any easier. “I’m okay.”

Wonshik takes him to the hospital anyway. He ends up having to stay overnight because he’s dehydrated and his blood sugar is low and the doctor berates him for not looking after himself. Taekwoon cries a little bit after he’s gone and tells Wonshik he’s trying his hardest.

“I know… Just- we’re never doing this again.” Wonshik says, looking pale and exhausted.

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” Taekwoon asks and then he takes Wonshik’s hand in his own and gives it a squeeze. Wonshik looks so worried and Taekwoon feels sick with guilt. Wonshik is trying so hard for them, for their babies, with work and the house and Taekwoon can’t even look after himself. “I’m sorry, Wonshik. I’m sorry that this has been so hard and I keep messing everything up. You’re doing so much for us and I’m making everything so difficult.”

“Don’t say things like that.” Wonshik kisses him on the forehead and then on the lips. “You’re not messing anything up or making anything difficult. You’re carrying our children and you’re doing such a great job. I love you, Taekwoon.”

Sunday, when Taekwoon gets home from the hospital, is spent curled up together on the sofa catching up on the week’s music shows. Wonshik keeps his hand on Taekwoon’s belly and he sings along to all the songs on the TV, making up the lyrics when he doesn’t know them, and it makes butterflies flutter in Taekwoon’s stomach.

He loves his husband so much.

They cook dinner together and it’s nothing special but it feels like it anyway. It’s the first day they’ve had together, just the two of them, in a couple of weeks and Taekwoon realises just how much he had missed Wonshik, even if he had seen him every day.

“What?” Wonshik asks when he catches Taekwoon watching him instead of eating his dinner.

“Nothing.” Taekwoon says. He looks back at his plate and eats a mouthful of rice and, when he looks back up, Wonshik is staring. “What?”

“I love you.” Wonshik answers immediately.

Taekwoon blushes, “I love you, too.”

“Let’s have a bath after dinner.” Wonshik suggests. The tub in their ensuite is bigger than the one they’d had in their old apartment and Wonshik had been excited about it when they had been looking at houses. “I can put some bubbles in.”

It’s still a bit of a squeeze – they are two fully grown men, after all – but they manage to get comfortable with Taekwoon tucked between Wonshik’s legs and his back flush against Wonshik’s toned chest. Wonshik rubs his belly and laughs in Taekwoon’s ear when he feels the babies move.

They talk about names and how much time Wonshik can take off as paternity leave once the babies arrive. They make guesses about their children’s personalities and who they’re going to look like and it’s nice, it’s really nice, because they’ve been so worried and stressed since they’d found out Taekwoon was pregnant that they’ve not really taken the time to enjoy it. There’s still two months left and, even if it seems unlikely that they’re going to get to their due date of the day after Christmas, they’re both hopeful they can get to December at least. That’s plenty of time to enjoy life as it is before it descends into the happy chaos that newborns bring.

Taekwoon manages to get a couple of hours of sleep in bed that night before getting up with their restless babies pummelling his insides. He keeps Butt locked away in the bedroom with Wonshik instead of letting him come downstairs with him because the dog has started barking at the creaking of the house on a night and Taekwoon is worried that their neighbours will complain.

He gets two popsicles and a glass of water but he only manages to eat one before he dozes off on the sofa. He half-wakes when he feels Wonshik rub at his cheek and his belly and take the now melted popsicle from his hand but he’s too tired to open his eyes. He slips back into sleep wondering when Wonshik’s hands got so calloused.

It’s Hakyeon who takes him to his hospital appointment the next day. There’s not much difference from the appointment he’d attended on Thursday but he’s able to say he’s feeling better than he had on Saturday. They go by Hakyeon’s dance studio on the way back from the hospital and they sit in on a parent and toddlers’ session that nearly has both of them in tears with how cute it is.

“That’ll be you in a couple of years.” Hakyeon says with a little grin as they watch a father run after one of his twin daughters while the other takes flight in the opposite direction. “Except, you know, with three.”

“God help me.” Taekwoon feels exhausted just thinking about it.

The grab lunch to eat at Taekwoon’s house and they’re both in a good mood by the time they’re pulling up in the drive, even if Taekwoon thinks he’s more than ready for a nap. He leaves Hakyeon to get the food from the backseat while he goes to unlock the front door, thinking of a hot cup of tea and thick, woolly socks.

Butt isn’t waiting for them at the door like he usually is whenever one of them gets home and it makes a ripple of unease spread up Taekwoon’s spine. The dog has never not been there waiting for him before.

“Butt?” He calls, stepping further into the entrance hall. “Butt- come here, baby.”

But the dog doesn’t appear.

Taekwoon looks in the living room and then goes through into the kitchen and his heart plummets down into the pit of his stomach.

The back door is ajar.

“No.” Taekwoon mutters and he staggers out into the yard.

The garden gate leading back onto the road is wide open.  

“What’s wrong?” Hakyeon has followed him out into the backyard and his face is scrunched up in concern. “What’s happened?”

“Butt- the back door.” Taekwoon stumbles over his words. “I let him out into the yard this morning but I locked the door again afterwards, I swear.”

“He’s run away?” Hakyeon asks.

“I- yeah.” Taekwoon scrubs the tears from his eyes. “We need to find him.”

They spend the next couple of hours combing the neighbourhood in Hakyeon’s car while Taekwoon phones around all the local veterinary clinics and pounds to see if anyone has handed Butt in but there’s nothing.

Wonshik is already home when they get back, much earlier than usual, and he looks relieved to see them.

“Oh, God, Taekwoon- I’ve been worried sick! Are you okay? How did your appointment go? Why didn’t you call me?” He pulls Taekwoon close but Taekwoon can’t hug him back.

“I’m so sorry, Wonshik.” He gasps around a sob.

“What? What’s happened?” Wonshik looks over Taekwoon’s shoulder to Hakyeon but Hakyeon doesn’t look at him.

“I left the back door open this morning.” Taekwoon tells him. “And Butt ran away.”

Wonshik freezes.

“I’m sorry.” Taekwoon tries. “We’ve looked all over the neighbourhood and I’ve called everywhere that I can think of but no one’s seen him.”

“What?” Wonshik’s voice is cold and he pulls away from the hug.

“He’s gone.” Taekwoon says.

“How could you be so stupid?” Wonshik explodes and Taekwoon takes a step back, his hand coming up to rub at his belly. “Leaving the door open? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I don’t know.” Taekwoon tells him. “I’m sorry!”

“I’m sure it was an accident.” Hakyeon says and he puts his hand on Taekwoon’s shoulder.

“I didn’t mean to.” Taekwoon pleads. “Please, Wonshik, I could have sworn I locked the door!”

“Obviously not.” Wonshik snaps at him as pushes past him.

“Where are you going?” Taekwoon follows after him, tries to grab his arm but Wonshik shakes him off. “Wonshik? Where are you going?”

“To look for him!” Wonshik shouts and he slams the front door closed behind himself.

Hakyeon gathers him into his arms and Taekwoon clings to the front of his coat and sobs.

“It was an accident.” Hakyeon tries to comfort him. “He’s a smart dog, I’m sure he’ll find his way home.”

Taekwoon tries to believe him.


	9. Stutter and Start (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like 5.8k words long but it's finished!!! There are no ghosts but you may not want to read this at night!!!
> 
> Warnings: creepiness, violence, mentions of animal death

Wonshik doesn’t get back until late.

Taekwoon tries to talk to him but Wonshik won’t even look at him. It breaks his heart to have his husband be so cold with him but he knows he deserves it for being so careless. Wonshik had had Butt since he was a tiny puppy and he knows just how much Wonshik loves him- that’s’ why he’d always sent him so many photos and videos whenever Wonshik had to go away for work. He’s certain that Wonshik is going to be upset for a long time and Taekwoon knows he has every right to be.

So, Taekwoon doesn’t go to bed for the next few nights, not wanting to upset Wonshik any further, and he instead settles on the sofa to try and sleep. It’s harder than normal. He doesn’t like being so far from Wonshik and without Butt’s presence at his side he feels scared and unsafe.

He doesn’t dare complain.

Wonshik is furious with him, won’t even talk to him, and he spends hours combing the neighbourhood after work looking for Butt instead of coming home. Taekwoon calls around the pounds and veterinary clinics twice a day but there’s never any news. It’s like he’s just vanished.

A week passes and Wonshik’s anger begins to lose its edge. He starts to talk to Taekwoon again: about how his hospital appointments went, if he’s feeling okay, if he needs anything from the store and Taekwoon hates himself. He doesn’t deserve Wonshik’s kindness after what he’s done.

Because Butt is missing – maybe hurt, maybe even worse – and it’s all Taekwoon’ fault. He feels so guilty and upset and there’s nothing he can do to stop it from hurting because Butt is still out there, lost and confused and so very far from home.

He thinks about that day a lot. He dissects the morning minute by minute and he gets more and more angry at himself because he can’t remember locking the door. He just _can’t_. He had been so certain at first but, whenever he thinks about it now, it all grows fuzzy and distant. He becomes convinced that he forgot, that he had messed up big time. And in that one moment of stupidity, one moment of carelessness, and they’d lost Butt.

It makes him wonder what kind of parent he’s going to be if he can’t even keep their dog safe.

And what’s even worse is that, no matter how careful he thinks he’s being, other things start to go missing, too. He misplaces his favourite hoodie and he loses his underwear somewhere between the hamper and the laundry room. The photos he thought were in the box by the bookshelf are nowhere to be found and he can’t remember moving them but he must have because Wonshik is never home long enough anymore to touch any of the boxes.

There’s other things, too, like eating all of his crackers and not remembering or coming back from his hospital appointments to find his blankets a crumpled mess on the floor instead of folded neatly over the back of the sofa like he thought he’d left them.

Taekwoon feels like he’s losing his mind.

He thinks he hears footsteps coming from the kitchen on a night but he knows he must be wrong because Wonshik doesn’t come downstairs once he’s gone to bed.

He tries to talk to Hakyeon about it, their other friends avoiding both him and Wonshik for fear of getting caught up in their fight, but Hakyeon tells him it’s just his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.

And maybe it is because Taekwoon is exhausted. He can’t remember the last time he slept for longer than a couple of hours without being woken up by the babies pressing on his bladder or kicking a bit too hard, without being woken up by the ominous creaking of the house or bad dreams about the back door banging open.

Wonshik tries to talk to him about it, obviously worried about the bags under his eyes and the threat of tears whenever he speaks, but Taekwoon finds his lips are clamped shut. He doesn’t know how to deal with Wonshik’s concern when he feels so guilty so he pushes Wonshik away.

He doesn’t know what else to do.

Things become strained and awkward and Taekwoon feels terrible because he knows that Wonshik is trying hard to forgive him and move on, even giving up on looking for Butt after a couple of weeks go by without anything, but Taekwoon can’t forgive himself for his mistake.  

He mopes around the house a lot without doing much of anything and he finds himself crying over the most stupid things. He wishes he could stop hurting but he doesn’t know how to get it to stop.

His birthday comes. Taekwoon only remembers because of the reminder in his phone. He knows Wonshik relies on him to remind him of important dates so he isn’t surprised when Wonshik doesn’t mention it when Taekwoon sees him off to work that morning. Still, it hurts and he doesn’t know why. He doesn’t deserve Wonshik’s kindness after what he’s done.  

Hakyeon takes him out for lunch at one of their favourite cafés and Taekwoon picks at his food while Hakyeon tells him about the new instructor at his dance studio and the new class they’re setting up on Friday nights. They go to a different café for cake and smoothies once they’re done with lunch because Taekwoon has a sudden craving for that particular place’s strawberry shortcake and Hakyeon is just glad that he wants to eat. Taekwoon almost asks if they can go home after that so he can rest, almost uncomfortably full from the three slices of cake he’d eaten, but Hakyeon is excited about treating the babies, too, so they go to the mall instead and pick out a few sleepsuits.

“Have you finished getting the nursey ready?” Hakyeon asks once they’re in line to pay.

“We haven’t even bought their cribs yet.” Taekwoon sighs and blinks away the tears welling in his eyes. He’s cried too much these last few weeks and he’s sick of it. He’s sick of himself. “Or a pushchair or _anything_.”

“You need to get organised.” Hakyeon tells him, sternly. “What if the doctor wants to deliver them next week?”

“I don’t know, I don’t want to think about it.”

Hakyeon sighs, “talk to Wonshik. You can’t keep punishing yourself like this, it’s not doing anyone any good.”

“But it was my fault.” Taekwoon says. “Everything is my fault.”

“Stop being so dramatic.” Hakyeon says and it makes a couple of tears slip down Taekwoon’s face even if he knows Hakyeon isn’t trying to be mean. “Talk to your husband. You messed up and something bad happened but he still loves you, Taekwoon. You’d have to be blind not to see it.”

Taekwoon excuses himself to go cry in the restrooms.

That evening Taekwoon forces himself to cook dinner but he ends up eating alone when Wonshik doesn’t come home despite a text promising he’d be back no later than six. He calls Wonshik when eight o’clock rolls around and his husband sounds like he means it when he apologises for being so late.

They’re just about to hang up when Taekwoon suddenly blurts, “are you still mad at me?”

He immediately starts to panic because he knows the answer. Of course Wonshik is still mad at him! Why is he punishing himself like this- forcing himself to listen to Wonshik say it out loud?

“Yeah.” He says and Taekwoon’s heart _hurts_. Then Wonshik lets out a long, tired sigh. “Yeah, I am and I probably will be for a long time but we’re about to become parents, Taek- I can’t. I’m trying to let it go. I just… I really fucking loved that dog.”

“I know and I’m so sorry.” Taekwoon says, tears already spilling down his cheeks.

He hurts.

“I know you are.” Wonshik tells him. “But sorry isn’t going to bring him back.”

Taekwoon bites back a sob, “don’t you think I know that?”

“I don’t want to talk about it like this. Not now, not over the phone. Just… just look after yourself, okay?” Wonshik says with another sigh. “I’ll be home soon.”

He hangs up then and Taekwoon is left feeling hollow.

He goes upstairs for a shower and changes into his pyjamas. He has another headache but he doesn’t know whether it’s all the stress of the last couple of weeks or one of the indicators that his blood pressure is getting worse. He doesn’t think he has the energy to care either way. His back and his hips hurt and he just wants to lie down in bed and _sleep_ but he doesn’t think he can stand to be so close to Wonshik – not with this guilt clawing at his insides, not knowing he’s still so angry – so he resigns himself to another night on the sofa.

Wonshik steps through the front door just as Taekwoon gets to the bottom of the stairs.

“Dinner’s in the microwave.” Taekwoon says instead of hello.

“I’ve already eaten.” Wonshik tells him and, for some reason, that hurts.

“Oh.” He says. “I just thought… I don’t know.”

“It was your birthday today.” Wonshik says and he looks so guilty that Taekwoon can’t stand to look at him. “And I forgot.”

“I didn’t remind you.” Taekwoon points out.

“That’s not an excuse. I should have remembered, I should have done better- it shouldn’t have taken Hongbin asking when he’d be okay to come over and drop off your present to remind me.” Wonshik’s shoulders droop. “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Taekwoon tells him. “Hakyeon took me out and we had cake and we bought some stuff for the babies. I had a good day.”

“I’m your husband.” Wonshik says. “I should have done better.”

“It really doesn’t matter.” Taekwoon insists. “So just forget it, okay?”

But Wonshik won’t drop it, “it’s Friday tomorrow. What if I try and get out of the office early so we can go out for dinner? Maybe go to the movies- we can do whatever you want.”

“I don’t want to _do_ anything!” Taekwoon snaps. “What part of ‘forget it’ don’t you understand?”

“Taekwoon, I’m trying really hard-.”

“I know!” He cuts him off. “I know you are and I hate it! I hate me! And you should hate me, too- I don’t understand why you’re being so nice. I fucked up. I fucked up so badly.”

“It was an accident.” Wonshik tells him. “And I know I’ve been mad and horrible to be around but I know it was an accident. You wouldn’t have done it on purpose, I know you wouldn’t, so you need to stop punishing yourself.”

“You love him.” Taekwoon says and he lets Wonshik wipe away the tears he didn’t realise were falling down his cheeks.

“Yeah but I love you more.” Wonshik presses a soft kiss to his forehead. “You’re my everything, Taekwoon. You and our little babies- I’m always going to love you the most so you need to stop hurting yourself like this, okay? I forgive you.”

Taekwoon breaks down.

Wonshik holds him close and it feels so good to be in his arms again after going without for the last couple of weeks. Taekwoon doesn’t know what he’s done to deserve someone who loves him like this. He feels incredibly lucky but guilty, too, because he’s screwed up so much.

He pulls away as his tears start to slow.

“Come to bed?” Wonshik asks.

Taekwoon looks at the floor, “not tonight- I need… I need space.”

“Okay.” Wonshik brushes his hand over Taekwoon’s face before stepping away. “Tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow.” He promises.

They go their separate ways after that, almost too awkward around each other to draw the moment out, even if things feel a bit better, more settled, with Wonshik taking the stairs two at a time and Taekwoon shuffling into the kitchen.

He gets himself a glass of water and then settles himself on the sofa and closes his eyes, too tired to even put the TV on.

He sleeps fitfully. He dreams of footsteps echoing around the house and Wonshik looking at him with hatred in his eyes. Taekwoon tries to get away because it hurts too much to see Wonshik look at him like that but he’s there, wherever Taekwoon tries to run, cold and mean and hurting.

‘Why would I forgive you?’ Wonshik asks him over and over. ‘How could I ever forgive you?’

‘I’m sorry!’ Taekwoon wants to scream.

The footsteps grow louder even as Wonshik walks away, disappearing into the darkness with his voice ringing in Taekwoon’s ears, ‘you’ve ruined everything, Taekwoon.’

He vanishes and Taekwoon gasps awake.

There’s a hand on his cheek and Taekwoon leans into its warmth, eyes screwed shut as tears leak down his cheeks. He’s shaking and he’s scared but he’s so relieved because Wonshik is there.

“Don’t cry, my pretty boy.”

Taekwoon’s eyes snap open, his heart pounding madly in his chest.

There’s a face inches from his own, so close he can feel warm breath on his cheek, and it’s dark but he knows that it isn’t Wonshik staring down at him.

He screams.

A dirty hand immediately covers his mouth and muffles the sound.

“None of that, my pretty.” The man croons into his ear.

Taekwoon reaches out to grab something – _anything_ – but all he ends up doing is knocking his glass of water off the coffee table.

The man keeps his hand clamped over Taekwoon’s mouth as he drags him off the sofa, his other arm wrapped around Taekwoon’s neck in a headlock, and Taekwoon kicks and twists and tries to get away.

“Stop fighting!” The man hisses. “You’re not supposed to fight!”

The man removes his hand from Taekwoon’s mouth and Taekwoon works himself up to scream but a fist connects with the side of his head before he can make a sound.

The blow stuns him enough that the man manages to drag him into the kitchen before Taekwoon can get himself together enough to fight.

“No…” He moans, trying to dig his heels into the cold tiled floor.

The door to the basement is wide open and Taekwoon’s heart races. Is the man going to take him down there? He doesn’t-.

He swings an uncoordinated arm up and catches the man in the face, earning himself an angry snarl and an even harder blow to the temple.

Taekwoon’s head spins.

‘I’m going to die.’ He thinks and then his next thought is of the babies and he knows he can’t give up.

“Wonshik!” He tries to shout but he doesn’t think it’s very loud.

He needs to be louder for the babies. They can’t die, they _can’t_. He opens his mouth to call for Wonshik again but then he’s on his back and there are hands on his throat and _he can’t breathe_.

“Why are you calling for him?” The man asks and he looks furious now. He slams Taekwoon’s head into the floor so hard that Taekwoon sees stars. “He doesn’t love you- only I love you. Why do you have to ruin it?”

Taekwoon claws at the man’s hands and kicks his feet but he’s not strong enough to dislodge him.

He’s getting weaker and his vision is starting to fade but he keeps on fighting.

He owes the babies that much.

So, he fights. He fights so hard but it all means nothing in the end.

His vision dims to black and his lungs _burn_.

He thinks of Wonshik and how much he’s let him down.

He thinks of their babies and how he’s never going to be able to hold them, tell them he loves them.

He lets his eyes slip shut.

But then- but then the hands are gone and Taekwoon can _breathe_.

He curls onto his side and holds his throat and he chokes as he greedily sucks in deep breaths. He can hear the sound of a fight but he doesn’t have the energy to look. Or maybe he’s too scared to. He doesn’t know.

He thinks he blacks out.

It’s hands shaking his shoulders that brings him to. Taekwoon doesn’t know- he thinks it’s the man and he screams and he immediately tries to get away.

“It’s okay- it’s me, it’s just me.” _Wonshik._ “I’ve got you, Taek.”

“Where?” Taekwoon chokes on the word, his eyes glassy and unfocused as he tries to look everywhere at once.

“It’s okay.” Wonshik says again. “You’re safe now, I’ve got you.”

“Babies.” Taekwoon gasps and he’s crying.

 _Sobbing_.

“I know, there’s an ambulance coming. Just hold on for me, okay? Just hold on, Taekwoon.”

But it’s too hard and Taekwoon passes out instead.

It’s light outside when he blinks awake, the sunlight filtering through the windows too bright, and it hurts his eyes so he squeezes them closed again. It isn’t right. It shouldn’t be light outside when he had only closed his eyes a second ago.

His heart is thudding painfully in his chest as he tries to call for Wonshik but he soon realises his throat is swollen closed when nothing but tiny gasps make it past his lips.

“Hey, you’re okay.” It’s not Wonshik and Taekwoon thinks he recognises the voice but his panicked mind doesn’t know- he can’t work it out.

_The man._

Taekwoon’s hand immediately goes to his stomach but it’s flatter than he remembers, empty.

He opens his mouth and he tries to scream but there’s no sound. He thrashes on the bed instead and fights the hands that try to hold him down because- his babies!

His babies are gone, the man has taken them- snatched them away!

“Taekwoon!” The almost familiar voice shouts. “Taekwoon, look at me!”

He wrenches his eyes open.

He knows the face staring down at him. It’s soft and young and sweet but Taekwoon still tries to get away because it’s too close and he’s terrified.

“They’re okay!” The person – Sanghyuk, he realises – shouts and there are tears running down his cheeks but Taekwoon doesn’t see them. He’s too scared, too lost in his panic. “They’re okay, I promise, Taekwoon, they’re okay!”

Taekwoon arches up off the bed and his stomach feels like it’s being split in two but he doesn’t stop fighting- he needs to get to his babies.

There are footsteps getting closer, pounding against cold tile, and Taekwoon tries again to scream.

They’re going to hurt him- he needs to get away.

But then there’s a strange warmth flooding his veins and the fight leaves him. The warmth drags him down into unconsciousness.

He doesn’t remember waking up the next time but he must because Hongbin and Sanghyuk are there and they look so scared and sad.

“What’s wrong?” Taekwoon tries to ask but it comes out a garbled mess.

Hongbin has his fingers in Taekwoon’s hair and it feels nice.

“Are you feeling okay?” Hongbin asks.

Taekwoon nods even if it hurts in some strange, distant way. He feels good. He feels loose and light and so very calm.

It’s nice.

“Oh, God, he’s so high.” Sanghyuk says around a choked laugh. “It’d be funny if-.”

Taekwoon looks at him, looks through him, and he thinks Sanghyuk is crying.

He wonders why.

“We’ve met the babies.” Hongbin tells him. “They’re so tiny, Taekwoon! But they’re so strong, too. Wonshik and the others are down with them now, keeping them company.”

“Keeping them out of trouble, more like.” Sanghyuk cuts in, rubbing at his face. “They’re already a handful.”

 “They’re beautiful.” Hongbin says and Taekwoon smiles because Hongbin is smiling. “I’ll take some photos for you when I next go down.”

“We should have thought of that before.” Sanghyuk says.

“I didn’t think. I got distracted by-.” But Taekwoon isn’t listening anymore.

He sleeps a lot over the next day or so. He doesn’t remember much from when he’s awake except that he’s never alone. It’s mostly Sanghyuk he sees at his bedside but Hakyeon, Jaehwan and Hongbin all take turns in visiting him, too.

They talk about the babies a lot and it all feels unreal to Taekwoon. His brain just can’t seem to catch up with everything that’s happened. He keeps putting his hands on his stomach and expecting to feel the babies moving in there but there’s nothing. And he knows that they’re alive and are getting stronger with every minute because Hakyeon and Jaehwan and Hongbin and Sanghyuk tell him and they show him photos. He knows they’re doing okay.

But, still, he can’t help but be terrified.

They’re so far away and he’s so scared because he can’t do anything to protect them, to keep them safe. The logical part of him knows that they’re in the hospital, that they’re in incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit, one of the hardest places in the hospital to get access to, and it’s the safest place for them to be.

And yet… And yet he’d thought their home was safe, too.

No one talks to him about what happened. Even when he wakes up screaming from terrible nightmares – the man’s hands around his throat, his hot breath on his face – no one says anything. He wants them to speak. He wants them to tell him that the man is gone, that he’ll never hurt Taekwoon or his babies again. They don’t.

Wonshik isn’t ever there when he wakes up.

Taekwoon knows it’s because he’s busy with the babies and he’s glad that they have at least one of their parents there with them. He’s glad it’s Wonshik, too, out of the two of them, because Taekwoon has done nothing but fail them. He hadn’t been able to keep them safe when they needed him to and he’s not able to keep them safe now, still confined to his hospital bed as he is. They need Wonshik more than he does.

But, still, he can’t help but worry that Wonshik is angry at him.

Angry that Taekwoon had let the man get the upper hand, angry that he hadn’t been able to fight him off and keep the babies safe, angry that he hadn’t been able to carry them to December like they had hoped.  

He gets scared that Wonshik doesn’t love him anymore. He understands because he had lost Butt and then he’d nearly let the babies be… He understands why Wonshik wouldn’t love him anymore because he doubts he would be able to love himself if their positions are reversed. Still, it scares him.

He feels tense and anxious and then he has a dream that Wonshik leaves and he takes the babies with him before Taekwoon even gets to meet them, spitting cruel words about not being good enough.

He wakes up frightened out of his mind and struggling to breathe.

“Where’s Wonshik?” He asks, the swelling in his throat having gone down enough now that he can talk. “Where are the babies?”

It’s Jaehwan that’s sat with him and he strokes Taekwoon’s lank hair and dabs at the tears that stream down Taekwoon’s sore face with his sleeve.

“They’re okay.” He tells him. “They’re downstairs in the neonatal unit. They’re all okay, Taekwoonie. I’ve just come up from seeing them so I know they’re doing just fine.”

“He’s going to take them.” Taekwoon clings to Jaehwan’s arm, his heart pounding in his chest. “He’s going to take them away.”

“The babies are with Wonshik.” Jaehwan says and Taekwoon is too lost in his own fear to notice the unease on Jaehwan’s face, in his voice. “They’re okay.”

“No.” Taekwoon pushes Jaehwan away and tries to get out of bed. “Wonshik’s mad- he’s going to take the babies.”

“What? No, Taekwoon, he’s not- he’s not _mad_ , not at you.” Jaehwan tries to push him back into bed but Taekwoon won’t let him.

He needs to- he has to _go_.

“He’s going to take them.” He repeats. “I need to see them just once. That’s all, just once.”

Jaehwan gives up fighting him.

Taekwoon takes one, two shaky steps forwards before his knees buckle.

Jaehwan catches him around the middle and Taekwoon lets himself be hauled back onto the bed, frustrated sobs bubbling from his lips.

“What are you talking about, Taekwoon?” Jaehwan asks.

“I let the babies get hurt.” He says. “And Wonshik’s mad.”

“You didn’t ‘let’ anything happen to the babies.” Jaehwan sounds horrified. “You fought so hard and that, that- you almost _died_. How could you think Wonshik would be mad at you? Hasn’t he been to see you yet?”

“He’s been with the babies, I haven’t… He needs to be with him but he’s going to take them away because he’s angry at me because I couldn’t keep them safe.” Taekwoon is rambling, he knows he is, but he can’t help himself. His throat – his whole body – hurts and he feels dizzy and distant. He feels scared. “He hates me because I let that man hurt the babies. He hates me.”

Jaehwan doesn’t try to argue with him. Instead he hugs him and Taekwoon slumps against his chest and cries until he exhausts himself enough to fall back asleep.

Wonshik is dozing in the chair next to his bed when Taekwoon blinks awake.

There are dark bruises on Wonshik’s face and it makes Taekwoon’s stomach twist with guilt. Wonshik wouldn’t have gotten hurt if Taekwoon had been able to hold his own, if he had-.

_The babies._

Anxiety flares in his chest because they’re alone.

“Wonshik.” He hisses, trying to wake his husband. “Wonshik!”

Wonshik jerks awake.

“Wonshik.” He says again. “Why aren’t you with the babies?”

“Hakyeon and Jaehwan are with them.” Wonshik tells him and his voice is thick with sleep. “They told me… I needed to come see you.”

“No, it’s okay.” Taekwoon shakes his head. “I understand. You need to be with them.”

“I need to be with you, too.” Wonshik says. He yawns and he stretches and then his gaze settles on Taekwoon for the briefest of moments before settling on his hands. “We need to talk.”

Taekwoon shrinks into himself and fear makes him shake.

This is it.

“You’re mad.” He whispers so quiet he doesn’t think Wonshik will hear him.

He does.

“I’m really mad.” Wonshik says.

“I’m sorry.” Taekwoon immediately responds even though he knows it’s not enough. Wonshik doesn’t say anything and Taekwoon panics. “Please, Wonshik. I’m so sorry, I tried to fight him, I promise, but he was too strong- I let him hurt the babies and I’m so sorry, Wonshik. I-.”

“Taekwoon.” Wonshik cuts him off and he’s staring at Taekwoon now. “Don’t- don’t you dare apologise. I’m the one that messed up. I’m the person I’m mad at.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I-.” Wonshik rubs at his eyes but it isn’t enough to hide his tears. “I should have insisted that you came to bed that night.”

“I wouldn’t have listened.” Taekwoon says, unable to believe that Wonshik is blaming himself for that when they both know how stubborn Taekwoon is. “That isn’t your fault.”

“I should have been home more.” Wonshik continues. “Then I would have noticed what was going on- I could have stopped it from happening.”

Taekwoon doesn’t understand.

“When the police came they found- in the basement there was…”

“What?” Fear twists in Taekwoon’s gut. “What, Wonshik?”

“That man had been living in there for weeks.” Wonshik says and Taekwoon feels sick. “There were empty food packets down there, all things he’d taken from the kitchen- your crackers, bags of chips, chocolate bars. But there was other things, things we should have noticed were missing. Your hoodie, a few of your t-shirts… Your underwear.”

Taekwoon feels a shiver run up his spine.

“I knew they were gone.” Taekwoon admits, his words slow. “But I thought I’d put them somewhere and forgotten. I thought I was losing my mind.”

“All our photos were down there, too.” Wonshik tells him. “He’d- he’d torn them all up and kept all the ones of you like some sick kind of collage.”

“He called me pretty.” Taekwoon murmurs and the reality of the situation hits him like a tonne of bricks. “He wanted to- he was going to-.”

There’s distant kind of horror welling up in his chest like a scream.

That man wanted to-.

“He didn’t.”

“He could have.”

“He didn’t.” Wonshik repeats, his voice firm. “He didn’t get chance- I don’t think he was expecting you to fight back.”

“I feel sick.” Taekwoon’s mind reels.

“Taekwoon.” Wonshik says and his voice is suddenly thick with tears. “The police- they found Butt down there.”

“No.”

“He was wrapped up in bags, hidden away in one of-.”

“No, he ran away.” Taekwoon shakes his head, not wanting to hear what Wonshik is telling him. “I left the door open and he ran away.”

“No-.”

“I left the door open and-.”

“You didn’t leave the door open.”

“I must have.” Taekwoon says, desperation lacing his tone. “How else would he have gotten inside?”

Wonshik shakes his head and takes Taekwoon’s hand in his own, “there’s another entrance to the basement from the outside. I didn’t notice it when I was down there when we first moved in and the entrance in the yard’s hidden behind some bushes. It wasn’t locked, Taekwoon. That’s how he got in.”

“He was living in our house.” Taekwoon says.

And then he remembers the footsteps from the kitchen on a night and hysterical sobs well in his throat.

“I heard him in the kitchen.” He chokes. “I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me because I was exhausted and the house was old but _he was in the kitchen_.”

Taekwoon clings to Wonshik’s hand as his mind races and his heart pounds.

And then- and then a memory hits him.

The calloused hands stroking his cheek and his belly that Sunday.

They hadn’t belonged to Wonshik.

“He- he-.”

Taekwoon throws up.

Wonshik swears and presses the call button while Taekwoon struggles to catch his breath.

“You’re okay.” Wonshik tells him as hurried footsteps approach. “You’re okay, Taekwoon- just breathe.”

He _can’t_.

He gasps and he chokes and he wheezes.

It hurts and he’s scared – _terrified_ – but Wonshik holds his hands and tries to make eye contact.

“You’re okay, Taek.” He says but he sounds frightened. “I’ve got you, you’re okay. I love you.”

The nurse slips something into Taekwoon’s IV and it isn’t long before his limbs get heavy and his breathing slows and he falls asleep.

Wonshik is there when he wakes from his nightmares, screaming and crying, and Taekwoon clings to him and tries to breathe. They talk more about what happened and Taekwoon grows more and more horrified with every thing he learns. He wonders how he could have been so stupid, how he hadn’t noticed, and Wonshik tells him that he’s asking himself the same questions.

Taekwoon knows he’s more to blame than Wonshik and he tries to tell him that but his husband won’t hear any of it.

“You can’t blame yourself for this.” He says. “You didn’t do anything wrong. The man who did this- he’s… he’s _sick_. He’s the one to blame.”

The police come to talk to Taekwoon the next morning and Wonshik holds his hand as he answers the seemingly endless amount of questions they ask. He feels like an idiot the whole time and it’s exhausting but Wonshik is a pillar of strength at his side.

He takes Taekwoon down to meet their babies after lunch.

Taekwoon is nervous. He knows he looks terrible with the burst blood vessel in his left eye and the dark bruises on his face and around his throat but Wonshik assures him it doesn’t matter, that the babies won’t know, but Taekwoon isn’t so sure. Hongbin is going to be there with his camera taking photos of the babies and them, too, more than likely, and Taekwoon hates the idea of what should be a happy moment being marred by what that man has done to them.

Wonshik seems to understand, “we’ll just make sure he takes photos from your right side.”

Seeing the babies for the first time is overwhelming.

They are so tiny and attached to so many different wires and tubes and Taekwoon probably cries the whole time he’s in there with them. The nurses caring for them introduce themselves before talking through all the different machines the babies are hooked up to and what they’re doing. The smallest of their babies, their little boy, is attached to the most but the nurses are confident that they’ll be able to start weaning him off them over the next couple of weeks. They’re allowed to touch him so Taekwoon strokes the top of his head and tells him how much he loves him. Their girls are bigger but they’re not ready to be held just yet so Taekwoon ghosts his fingers over their tiny bodies and falls in love with them.

Hongbin is unobtrusive as he takes his photos and Taekwoon is grateful towards their friend. He doesn’t draw attention to himself or what he’s doing but he smiles, wide and encouraging, every time Taekwoon catches his eye.

They don’t stay long, only a couple of hours, but it’s enough for Taekwoon for the moment.

Wonshik wheels him back to his room and helps him climb back into bed.

He feels exhausted but happy, too. Their babies, while tiny and very much in need of help, are going to be okay. It might take a couple of months before they can go home but they’re going to be okay and Taekwoon is just so glad.

After everything they’ve been through, after all the worry and the stress, the horrible events that had forced their early entrance to the world, the babies are here and they’re _okay_.

His and Wonshik’s children.

Their two daughters and their son.

 _They’re okay_.

It makes him want to cry but Taekwoon finds himself smiling at Wonshik instead.

“What?” Wonshik asks as he settles the sheets around Taekwoon’s aching body.

“We made those.”

“We did.” Wonshik smiles back, proud and so in love. “Our children.”

Taekwoon threads his fingers through Wonshik’s and Wonshik squeezes them tight. He feels safe with Wonshik there, stronger than he could ever be alone.

After a little while he asks, “do you think we’re going to be okay?”

“Yeah.” Wonshik says. “It’s going to be really hard but we’ll get through it. We always do, don’t we?”

“Yeah.” Taekwoon agrees. “Somehow.”

“Then we’ll make it through again this time.” Wonshik sounds so sure of himself that Taekwoon can’t help but believe him. “We’ll be okay.”

“We’ll be okay.” Taekwoon repeats.

He doesn’t know how or how long it will take but they will be okay.


	10. Strings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For JustAnotherStarLitFan who wanted soulmates meeting for the first time. I borrowed a couple of ideas from Whisper (the love of my life) but is otherwise (hopefully!) a bit of a different spin on the strings of fate idea.

The morning after the lightning storm, Wonshik wakes up with a blue string tied around left his ankle.

“Huh.” He says before he catches sight of his alarm clock and promptly forgets all about it.

Except… Except when he gets to work – only ten minutes late – it’s all everyone is talking about.

“Have you got a string?” Someone asks him before he’s even managed to take his coat off.

Wonshik looks down at his feet and sees the blue string trailing behind him on the floor and then up at the woman speaking to him, “you can’t see it?”

“Can you see mine?” She asks.

He shakes his head.

“Shame.” She says. “I always thought you were cute.”

Wonshik doesn’t understand but he thinks that’s maybe because he’s only been awake for half an hour and has yet to have his morning coffee.

He goes to his cubicle once he’s hung up his coat and grabbed himself a cup of sludge from the coffee machine in the break room. He’s only a little bit surprised to see Sanghyuk sitting in his chair with a bright smile on his face.

“Don’t you have any work to do?” Wonshik asks him, dumping his bag on the floor.

“It’s soulmates.” Sanghyuk tells him.

“What is?”

“The strings, you idiot.” Sanghyuk rolls his eyes and gets out of Wonshik’s chair when the older aims a kick at his shin. “Mine and Hongbin’s are tied together.”

“Congratulations, I guess?” Wonshik says.

“Is that really all you have to say?”

Wonshik grunts.

He takes a sip of his coffee and sinks into his chair, waiting for the caffeine to kick in. Sanghyuk sits on his filing cabinet and settles in to wait, too, looking giddy and impatient and gleeful.

“We’re soulmates.” Sanghyuk says not a minute later, already tired of waiting. “Do you know how cool that is?”

“You’ve always been disgustingly perfect for each other.” Wonshik snorts and then a thought hits him. “Wait- how can your strings be tied together if he works four blocks away?”

“I don’t know.” Sanghyuk shrugs. “Magic or whatever gave us these strings in the first place. I’m not going to question it. What colour is your string?”

“Blue.” Wonshik tells him.

“Boring.” Sanghyuk makes a face. “Mine is orange and Hongbin’s is green.”

“Don’t those colours clash?”

“In a very beautiful way.” Sanghyuk tells him and he finally has the grace to look a little bit embarrassed. “They look kind of perfect together actually.”

Wonshik shakes his head and points towards Sanghyuk’s cubicle, “go be mushy somewhere else. You’re making me feel sick.”

The day drags by and Wonshik is certain he’s the only one in the whole department that does any work. Normally he’s one of those slacking off but today everyone else is too busy gossiping or trawling the internet for more information on the strings and what they mean to get anything done. Wonshik had been almost certain that someone had put something in the water supply and the whole of Seoul was tripping until he had run the forlorn bit of blue string through his fingers and felt how real it was. He’d only further convinced himself by trying to cut the string off and failing spectacularly, shattering the blades of three pairs of scissors in the process.

“Why would you want to cut it off?” Sanghyuk asks, eyes wide with alarm, when Wonshik tells him over lunch. “We don’t know what these strings do yet- you could have killed your soulmate!”

“I don’t have a soulmate.” Wonshik grumbles. “This whole thing is stupid.”

He only grows more certain in his opinion when Jaehwan arrives at his apartment half an hour after Wonshik gets home from work, crying and heartbroken because his and Hakyeon’s strings are not tied together.

“Please don’t be upset.” He says because he is terrible with crying people and has no idea how to provide comfort. “No one knows what these strings mean yet. Just because a couple of people are saying soulmates doesn’t make it true. You and Hakyeon have always been ridiculously happy, are you really going to let a bit of fluff ruin that?”

“But what if they’re right?” Jaehwan asks.

“You love Hakyeon, don’t you?”

Jaehwan sniffs and nods.

“Then what does it matter? You shouldn’t throw that away for some silly bit of string that might not even be there when you wake up in the morning.”

But the strings are still there the next morning and the morning after that, too.

Jaehwan and Hakyeon don’t break up and Wonshik is glad. They’ve always been such a picture-perfect couple, it’d be ridiculous for them to throw it away because of this. Still, he knows things are strained between them and it makes Wonshik so mad because no one even knows what these strings mean.

A week passes.

The strings are still there and Wonshik is fed up of hearing about them. They’re still all over the news and the number one most talked about thing in the office and Wonshik is _bored of it_.

“Don’t you want to know who your soulmate is?” Sanghyuk asks.

“Who says its soulmates?”

“Err, everyone.” Sanghyuk rolls his eyes. “Seriously, how can you not be even the littlest bit interested?”

“Because this whole thing is stupid.” Wonshik drops his chopsticks and crosses his arms across his chest. “What happened to the freedom to choose who you love?”

“It’s dead and gone.” Sanghyuk steals some chicken from Wonshik’s lunch box. “Get with the times.”

“Try telling that to Hakyeon and Jaehwan.” Wonshik mutters under his breath and immediately feels bad when he sees the guilt on Sanghyuk’s face.

The truth is Wonshik is a little bit curious about who his supposed soulmate is- not that he’d ever admit that to Sanghyuk, not when he can hardly admit it to himself. Even if it’s been years, he’s just not ready to fall in love again. He still hurts too much.

A month goes by and Hakyeon and Jaehwan break up.

Wonshik expects it to be dramatic and painful but it isn’t. They don’t even fight or fall out and instead stay best friends. Jaehwan’s string attaches itself to his new co-worker and Hakyeon’s to the barista at the coffee shop that opens across from his new apartment. They’re happy for each other.

Wonshik finds the whole thing jarring. His own experiences of break ups have been bad, bad, _bad_. He doesn’t know how they can still be friends when the other is with someone else.

“It’s hard.” Hakyeon agrees. “We were together for years and I still love him but we’re both happier like this. These strings… They really do know.”

Wonshik isn’t convinced.

Or at least not until he meets _him_.

Wonshik is late for work – _again_ – and not looking where he’s going as he hurries through the wet and miserable Seoul streets, umbrella held out in front of him like a shield. The weather and the fact that it’s past clock in time for most people means that the streets are quiet and Wonshik is certain he’s going to make it in record time. That is until he barrels straight into someone.

They both fall to the ground, the point of Wonshik’s umbrella hitting the stranger in the face while the rest of his body takes the brunt of Wonshik’s fall, and it takes Wonshik a long moment to register what’s happened before he’s pulling himself and the stranger to their feet.

“Are you okay?” Wonshik asks and immediately feels like an idiot because he’s just smacked this guy in the face with his umbrella and his lip is _bleeding_. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry- I wasn’t looking where I was going and-.”

“My coffee.” The man laments, hand half outstretched to the iced coffee mixing with an already large puddle

Wonshik has to stop himself from shaking his head, eyes fixed on the now empty cup. Who drinks iced coffee on days like these anyway? It’s nearly November for crying out loud.

He’s about to say something to that effect when he catches sight of his string.

Their strings.

“Holy shit.”

They’re tied together.

“I know.” The man says, obviously not having seen what Wonshik has. “I’d only just bought it.”

“Not the coffee, our strings- they’re tied together.”

“Oh.” The man blushes and there’s a sharp tug of _something_ deep in the pit of Wonshik’s stomach. “That’s… Wow. Hello.”

Wonshik feels caught somewhere between disbelief and exasperation, “I knocked you to the floor, nearly mauled you with my umbrella and all you’ve got to say is ‘hello’?”

“You spilled my coffee, too.” The man points out, his blush growing a deeper shade of red but not looking away from Wonshik’s eyes. “Maybe you should buy me another one.”

Wonshik thinks of work and how much trouble he’s going to be in if he doesn’t turn up but it’s only a fleeting thought. Here, right now, with this man holding his hand out for Wonshik to take feels more important.

“I don’t believe in the strings.” Wonshik tells him even though his whole body is tingling with emotions he’s sure he’s never felt before.

The man withdraws his hand and ducks his head, “oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know why, I just thought-.”

It’s still raining, Wonshik realises, and they’re both soaked to their skin, the umbrella dangling uselessly from Wonshik’s fingers, but this moment feels _right_ somehow.

“I’m Wonshik.” Wonshik says.

“Taekwoon.” The man tells him and Wonshik swears his heart is beating at double speed.

“Taekwoon.” He says, testing the name on his tongue. It feels good. “I… I don’t live too far away from here. Come back with me? I can lend you some dry clothes, make us both some coffee.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in the strings?” Taekwoon asks but he takes Wonshik’s hand anyway when he offers it to him.

“I don’t.” Wonshik says. “But I’m willing to let you change my mind.”

Taekwoon laughs, “okay. I’ll take that challenge.”

Wonshik thinks the only challenge is going to be not falling head over heels for Taekwoon in the next ten minutes but he doesn’t say that out loud. He doesn’t think he needs to, not when Taekwoon is looking at him like he already knows.

Wonshik looks down at the red string tied to his blue and he groans, glad that Sanghyuk can’t see him now.

Because the blue and the red, they look kind of perfect together.


	11. Sharp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Taeyongtrash who wanted vampire Ravi, blood donor Leo and bottom!Leo smut. I am so, so sorry that this has taken so long. I hope you enjoy this!
> 
> Warnings: allusions to prostitution, blood drinking, my terrible writing.

“You came back.”

“Are you ever going to stop being surprised?”

“No.” Wonshik answers honestly, pulling the door open a little wider so Taekwoon can enter. “I don’t know why anyone would willing go to someone who hurts them.”

“You pay ridiculously well and sex with you is better than with any of my other clients.” Taekwoon shrugs, flashes him a wide smile. “And you don’t hurt me, not really.”

Wonshik watches him toe off his boots, “I could very easily kill you.”

“So what?” Taekwoon asks. “Like I couldn’t very easily do it myself. I could trip walking down the stairs on the way out and break my neck or slip in the tub and crack my head open. Just because you’ve got pointy teeth and inhuman strength, it doesn’t make you any likelier to kill me. I know you, Wonshik, I trust you not to.”

“You’re an idiot.” Wonshik tries very hard to fight a smile, knowing he shouldn’t encourage him. Wonshik is very dangerous, after all, and Taekwoon is very young, even by human standards, only just out of his teens- he doesn’t think it’s right that he should so openly court death. Even if Wonshik wants him to, pays him to. “At least promise me you’re looking after yourself- that this isn’t too soon after last time.”

“I’m fine.” Taekwoon tells him despite the paleness of his skin and the dark smudges under his eyes. “It’s been four days.”

“I’ll try not to take too much tonight.”

“Stop worrying so much.” Taekwoon rolls his eyes as he pushes past Wonshik on his way to the bedroom. “You always know when to stop.”

Wonshik snorts.

If only Taekwoon knew how much his blood sings to Wonshik, how hard it is for him to stop once he starts to feed, perhaps he’d be more frightened.  Perhaps he’d never come back.

Wonshik isn’t entirely sure he wants that.

He just knows that he wants this human, wants to claim him and keep him entirely as his own, safe from the outside world but not from Wonshik. He doesn’t though because it’s not something Taekwoon wants and Wonshik isn’t a monster.

He isn’t.

Taekwoon is already out of his t-shirt when Wonshik joins him in the bedroom.

“Where’s the romance?” He teases.

“You don’t pay me for romance.” Taekwoon reminds him but he stops unbuttoning his trousers and draws Wonshik in for a kiss anyway.

Wonshik tangles his fingers in Taekwoon’s hair and feels hunger and excitement well within him as he works his tongue passed Taekwoon’s lips. Taekwoon doesn’t make it easy, his tongue fighting Wonshik’s every step of the way, and it would be frustrating if he didn’t find it so ridiculously attractive.

Taekwoon is the first to pull away, his chest heaving and his lips pink and swollen. He teases, “some of us still need to breathe.”

“Is that right?” Wonshik nips at the skin at the base of Taekwoon’s neck just so he can feel him shudder. “I think we should test that.”

Taekwoon drops to his knees with only minimal encouragement and his long fingers immediately find their way to Wonshik’s belt buckle. Wonshik is half-hard already but he imagines it won’t take too long for Taekwoon’s pretty lips to take him all the way.

Taekwoon tugs his jeans down around his knees and mouths at his dick through the thin cotton of his boxers. The warmth of his lips is as close to heaven as Wonshik thinks he’ll ever get and he is eager to feel the heat of Taekwoon’s mouth on his bare skin.

He thinks Taekwoon knows that, too, because he drags his blunt finger nails up the back of Wonshik’s thighs and over his ass and continues to tease him through his boxers.

Taekwoon smiles innocently up at him when Wonshik lets out an impatient huff, “is the big, bad vampire getting annoyed?”

“Have you always been such a brat?” Wonshik shoots back.

He sucks a bruise into the skin of Wonshik’s hip, “always.”

And then he’s tugging Wonshik’s boxers down and wrapping his lips around the head of his cock.

Wonshik lets out a gasp when the human takes all of him in his mouth, the hand on his ass pulling Wonshik closer, and he doesn’t hold back from bucking into the delicious, wet heat. Taekwoon chokes and tears spring to his eyes but he doesn’t try to pull back.

“You’re so beautiful like this.” Wonshik croons, twisting his fingers in Taekwoon’s hair. “On your knees and _quiet_.”

Taekwoon hums, obviously unimpressed, and the vibration it causes has him tugging Taekwoon’s head forwards, crushing his nose against his stomach.

He fucks into his mouth, quick and relentless, and it’s only when Taekwoon’s grip on his hips starts to slacken does he stop.

“Are you okay?” He asks.

Taekwoon’s eyes are glassy, his cheeks red and Wonshik doesn’t doubt that he’d have passed out if he’d carried on much longer. He’s breath-taking, though, with spit and pre-come smeared down his chin and Wonshik’s dick in his mouth. He can hear Taekwoon’s heart pounding in his chest and he breathes in his heady scent, his mouth watering in anticipation of feeding on his blood.

Taekwoon pulls off and leans back, panting, “humans definitely need to breathe.”

“Shame.” Wonshik murmurs.

Wonshik tugs him to his feet and peppers soft, sweet kisses on his neck and his shoulders as he guides him backwards towards the bed. Taekwoon lets himself be pushed down onto his back and Wonshik fights back a smile at how pliant he is like this, still struggling to catch his breath.

Wonshik decides to not help.

He drapes himself over the human, smashing their lips together in a heated kiss even as his hand slips beneath the waistband of Taekwoon’s underwear and strokes his cock, and Taekwoon gasps and moans and pants into his mouth.

He drags Taekwoon’s underwear and his jeans down his hips and his legs and they work together to untangle them from around his feet and kick them to the floor.

Wonshik leans across to the bedside table and grabs the small bottle of lube and the condom he’d left out in readiness for the human’s visit. Taekwoon spreads his legs without any prompting and reveals the dark marks on the inside of his thighs, ones that Wonshik didn’t leave.

He knows what Taekwoon is, that what they have isn’t exclusive, but he still feels the familiar surge of possessiveness deep in the pit of his stomach.

He coats his fingers in lube and brings one up to circle at Taekwoon’s entrance.

The human whimpers and spreads his legs even further.

Wonshik pushes his finger in and tuts, “you’re already so loose, Taekwoonie. Who else have you been with today, hm? The failing actor? The emotionless doctor?”

He slips a second finger in scissors them, knowing Taekwoon’s body well enough by now to know what the human can take.

“The unfaithful husband perhaps?”

“Wonshik.” Taekwoon moans, writhing on the bed. “Wonshik, _please_.”

Wonshik makes a show of leaning over him and sniffing the skin of his chest, pretending to work it out, as if he hadn’t smelled the other’s scent on him the moment Taekwoon had stepped through the door, “oh, I know. The old man. Did he have you dress up again, Taekwoonie? Did he make you wear make-up and a pretty, short skirt?”

“Not today.” Taekwoon hisses. “Today… Today it was cat ears and a collar- oh, fuck, Wonshik.”

Wonshik feels his dick twitch.

“So, cute.” He adds a third finger and curls it, making Taekwoon cry out. “Did you make a pretty kitty?”

Taekwoon moans in response and strokes himself a couple of times.

“Answer me.” Wonshik tells him, fucking him hard with his fingers. “Were you a pretty kitty for the old man?”

“Yes!” Taekwoon gasps. “Yes, oh, God- Wonshik, please, fuck me.”

“Maybe I should buy some cat ears.” Wonshik says as he withdraws his fingers.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Taekwoon tells him and Wonshik laughs.

Wonshik rolls the condom on and lines himself with Taekwoon’s entrance.

“Are you ready?” He whispers into the human’s ear before nipping at his ear, feeling him shudder underneath him.

“Yeah.” Taekwoon breathes. “Please, Wonshik.”

Wonshik pushes in.

The pace he sets is brutal, his thrusts deep and hard, but Taekwoon moans and calls his name over and over and it makes Wonshik hungrier, harder because, in this moment, with Wonshik’s name on his lips and his dick in his ass, Taekwoon belongs to him.

It’s the closest Wonshik will ever get to what he truly wants.

He jerks Taekwoon in time to his thrusts and feels his fangs elongate and sharpen in his mouth.

The sound of Taekwoon’s heart thudding in his chest fills Wonshik’s ears until it’s all he can hear and Wonshik moves faster, faster than any human ever could, and Taekwoon’s legs around his waist try to draw him closer with every thrust.

Wonshik grazes his fangs over Taekwoon’s shoulder and that’s what has him coming.

Wonshik doesn’t stop but he does slow, drawing out Taekwoon’s orgasm for as long as he can, and it’s only when the human is done, his body shaking and spent, that Wonshik bites down on his neck.

Taekwoon’s blood is at its sweetest immediately post orgasm and Wonshik drinks greedily as Taekwoon wraps clumsy arms around his neck and tries to draw Wonshik closer. The sensation of warm blood spilling down his throat and the thrilling echoes of pleasure he can taste in it pushes Wonshik over the edge. He buries himself to the hilt and comes with a long, low moan.

He continues to feed, losing himself to the beauty of it, feeling himself growing stronger, revitalised- the creature he was always meant to be.

And then he hears Taekwoon’s heart stutter in his chest and notices the limp arms around his neck and he immediately stops.  

“Fuck.” He hisses and licks at the wound on Taekwoon’s neck until it’s closed. “Taekwoon?”

“M’okay.” Taekwoon murmurs, his eyes fluttering weakly before falling closed. “Just tired.”

“Then sleep.” Wonshik says and he feels guilty. It had been a long time since he’d lost control like that. “I’ll clean you up.”

Taekwoon gives into the pull of unconsciousness and Wonshik pulls out and draws back, cradles his head in his hands and shakes.

He hadn’t thought of himself as a monster, not for a long time, but he thinks that he might just be for nearly killing the one human whose trust in him was absolute, whose blood sang to him and made Wonshik feel his most powerful.

The human who he would take as his mate for all eternity if he were to let him.  


	12. Strawberry Shortcake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something a little bit different!

“Why are you eating cake for breakfast?”

Sanghyuk scratches his stomach and yawns as he makes his way into the kitchen, still half asleep despite his shower. He collapses into a chair at the table, buries his head in his arms and thinks that it’s far too early to be awake.

“It was in the fridge.” Taekwoon answers, voice just above a whisper.

“Yeah, but why are _you_ eating it?” Hakyeon asks. “It’s not your cake.”

Sanghyuk lifts his head at the word ‘cake’ and frowns, his brain fighting to catch up.

Sanghyuk makes eye contact with Taekwoon. The elder freezes, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, his cheeks bulging with cake and another forkful halfway to his mouth. Sanghyuk feels anger bubble in his chest.

That’s _Sanghyuk’s cake_.

“Are you kidding me?!” He nearly shouts and he jumps to his feet. “A fan gave me that! I was looking forward to eating it- why would you..?”

Taekwoon swallows and offers him a nervous smile, “it’s not that nice anyway?”

Sanghyuk can hardly believe his ears.

One of the fans waiting outside the company building last night had given him the cake – strawberry shortcake, one of his absolute favourites – on his way to the car.

“Just for you.” She’d said, her expression surprisingly serious. “I made it especially for you.”

The box had his name on it with loads of cute stickers that had made him smile as he’d looked them over in the car back to the dorm. She’d spent a lot of time putting it together for him and he’d felt very touched by the sweet gesture even as he made plans to eat the cake the next evening as a reward for a long day of promotions. He can’t believe Taekwoon would just eat it!

He lunges for him.

Taekwoon yells and spins to sprint out of the kitchen but runs straight into a yawning Wonshik.

“Help me.” He pleads, hiding behind his boyfriend as Sanghyuk stalks towards him. “Please.”

“What did he do?” Wonshik asks.

“He ate my cake!” Sanghyuk tells him.

Wonshik shakes his head and steps out of Sanghyuk’s way, leaving Taekwoon totally exposed, “he’s all yours.”

“Traitor.” Taekwoon hisses.

Sanghyuk is on him before he can even think about getting away and he wrestles him to the ground, kicking and screaming. He sits on Taekwoon’s legs and pinches at the sensitive skin of his inner arms. Taekwoon howls and tries to get away and Sanghyuk is so mad he wants to pinch harder even if he knows he shouldn’t- Taekwoon bruises ridiculously easy and what he’s doing is already hard enough to leave marks.

“Can’t you kill him somewhere that isn’t here?” Jaehwan complains. “He’s giving me a headache.”

Sanghyuk ignores him.

“Why did you eat it?”

“I’m sorry!” Taekwoon cries.

Sanghyuk squeezes a little bit harder.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t do it again- I promise!”

“Liar.” Sanghyuk snorts and pinches at his waist instead.

“That’s enough.” Hakyeon calls from the table, barely audible over Taekwoon’s yelling. “The car will be here in ten minutes- you can kill him later.”   

Sanghyuk makes sure to put all of his weight on Taekwoon as he pushes himself to his feet.

“This isn’t over.” He warns because he’s still fuming.

He doesn’t talk to Taekwoon once they’re in the car and ignores the chocolate peace offering he presents once they arrive at their dressing room for the day. Taekwoon pouts and pokes at his side until Wonshik drags him away, seeing that his boyfriend is clearly not helping himself, and Sanghyuk is almost disappointed because he had been looking forward to round two.

Predictably, Taekwoon starts to complain he’s not feeling well when they start getting their hair and make-up done and Sanghyuk rolls his eyes because Taekwoon always gets sulky and whiny when one of them falls out with him.

“You’re fine.” Wonshik says with an exasperated huff that, somehow, still manages to sound incredibly fond.

Sanghyuk thinks it’s a bit disgusting how soft they are for each other.

“That’s what you get for eating cake for breakfast.” Hongbin teases, shooting a look at Sanghyuk. “Isn’t that right, Hyukkie?”

Their stylist is a little bit more gullible than the rest of them, “you’re shaking. Are you cold?”

Taekwoon doesn’t answer her and Sanghyuk hears Hakyeon tut.

“There’s no need to be rude, Taekwoon.” He chastises. “Especially to the only person willing to go along with your game.”

“It’s not a game.” Taekwoon mutters, his voice high and whiny.

“Just shut up.” Sanghyuk snaps. “Before you embarrass yourself.”

Hakyeon throws him a look but Sanghyuk ignores him. He thinks he’s well within his rights to still be annoyed with Taekwoon- he had eaten his cake!

It isn’t long before they’re being called through to the stage for the first take of their performance. Sanghyuk rolls his eyes when Taekwoon trips over his own feet and Wonshik has to grab him before he goes crashing to the floor.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Taekwoon shrugs him off and marches off ahead.

“Taek-.” Wonshik reaches out after him but Sanghyuk knocks his arm down.

“Leave him.” He says. “He’s just being a drama queen.”

They wave to the fans as normal and introduce themselves. Jaehwan screeches and clings to Hongbin in the few minutes they have to wait before their performance starts and it helps to disguise some of the tension between the other members.

Sanghyuk tries to ignore Taekwoon but he catches sight of him fanning himself out of the corner of his eye and scoffs. He thinks about going over and telling him that his act has gone too far and that none of them are interested but then they’re getting into position and the music starts.

They’re not even a minute in when it happens.

One second Taekwoon is dancing with the rest of them and the next he’s on the floor. Sanghyuk keeps on going for a few beats, not really understanding what he’s seeing, but then when he does he freezes.

The audience are screaming and the music is still playing but Sanghyuk can hardly hear anything over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. He feels stuck in place as Hakyeon and Wonshik try to do something to help and staff run onto the stage and crowd around the three of them.

Still, through the crowd of legs Sanghyuk can see Taekwoon jerking and shuddering, can see blood leak from his mouth and pool on the floor, can hear the choked gasps he makes when the music is finally cut.

They all go to the hospital but Sanghyuk doesn’t remember the journey. He barely even remembers the hours and hours spent in the waiting room sandwiched between Jaehwan and Hongbin on uncomfortable plastic chairs.

He remembers the doctor coming to see them, though. He remembers the disbelief he feels when the she tells them the reason for Taekwoon’s illness- the shock on the others’ faces.

“Poison?” Hakyeon repeats.

“Can you think of anything he may have eaten that was out of the ordinary?” The doctor asks. “Something that none of the rest of you ate?”

Sanghyuk’s heart stops.

“My cake.” He says. “He ate my cake.”

And then it hits him what that means and his knees give out. Jaehwan sinks to the floor with him and rubs at his back as Wonshik sobs and swears and shakes.

Someone had tried to kill him.

They would have probably succeeded if it wasn’t for Taekwoon’s annoying habit of taking other people’s food from the fridge.

Sanghyuk feels sick.

“At least,” Hongbin says around a forced smile, “he might learn to stop stealing our food.”

Sanghyuk laughs so hard he cries.


	13. Stuck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For lovethetardis who wanted Wontaek pining, awkward tension and 4vixx being sick of their shit. Perhaps a little different to what you imagined but I hope you enjoy anyway!
> 
> To everyone else waiting for me to fill their prompts- I'm not doing them in any particular order, just what I feel like writing at the time. I'm sorry if that means a long wait!!

“They get you, too?”

Taekwoon scowls and straightens his shirt but otherwise refuses to answer.

He prowls the tiny room they’re trapped in looking for an exit before turning his attention back to the door.

“There’s no use trying to get out.” Wonshik tells him when Taekwoon rattles the doorknob. “We’re locked in tight.”

“Bastards.” Taekwoon mutters. He kicks the door once, twice and then a third time before slumping to the floor, defeated. After a long moment of silence, he asks, “how long have you been in here?”

“Hours.” Wonshik sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “It must have taken them longer than they’d expected to find you.”

Taekwoon makes a noncommittal noise under his breath.

“It was Jaehwan that got me.” Wonshik tells him. “Sneaky fucker. Told me he had something he wanted to tell me, that it had to be done in private and he led me here. I can’t believe I fell for it.”

“Rookie mistake.” Taekwoon agrees.

“I think I’d have been able to get away if Hongbin and Sanghyuk weren’t lying in wait.” Wonshik laments. “I tried to run as soon as I saw them but they grabbed me and threw me in here.”  

“Bastards.” Taekwoon repeats.

Silence falls over them both but neither of them mind. They’ve spent a lot of time in silence over the years.

Wonshik vacates the only chair in the place and joins Taekwoon on the floor. He links their fingers together and Taekwoon gives him a tired smile.

“How long do you think we’re going to be in here?” He asks.

“I don’t know.” Taekwoon responds. He lifts his head and has a look around. “They left us food and water and a bucket to piss in. It could be days.”

“You’ll be in there however long it takes for you to admit you love each other!” A voice from the other side of the door shouts.

Wonshik laughs and brings Taekwoon’s hand to his lips and kisses it, “we’re never getting out.”

“I’ll settle for you just fucking.” Another voice – Jaehwan’s – calls. “Anything to get rid of the awkward tension.”

“It’s ruining the group’s dynamic!” Hakyeon explains but he, at least, has the grace to sound something other than gleeful at their predicament.

“Traitor!” Taekwoon shouts but there’s no real venom behind it.

“It’s for your own good!” Hakyeon insists.

“Do you think we should tell them?” Wonshik whispers.

Taekwoon snorts, “tell them what?”

“The truth.” Wonshik leans in closer, close enough that his breath tickles Taekwoon’s neck when he speaks. “That things are only so tense because we’re trying very hard to not fu-.”

“What are you whispering about?” Sanghyuk interrupts, banging on the door.

“Are all of you out there?” Wonshik asks, his voice loud enough to carry.

“This is important business!” Hongbin says.

“Idiots.” Taekwoon mutters and then he runs his hand over Wonshik’s crotch, drawing out a gasp from the younger. “But it would be rude to not take advantage of this time alone, don’t you think? After all the effort they’ve gone to.”

“They’ll hear us.” Wonshik says but he lifts his hips so Taekwoon can tug his sweats and his underwear down anyway. “What happened to keeping it a secret?”

Taekwoon positions himself between Wonshik’s legs, strokes his dick a couple of time, “we were doing that for their sake more than ours.”

“We didn’t want to make things awkward.” Wonshik agrees and then he lets out a deep moan when his boyfriend takes him in his mouth.

“That sounds fake!” Jaehwan shouts.

“Fu- fuck you!” Wonshik shouts back, tangling his fingers in Taekwoon’s hair.

“I don’t know, it sounds pretty real to me.” They hear Sanghyuk say. “I’ve heard Wonshik jerk off enough times- I should know.”

“Taekwoon is being quiet.” Hongbin says.

“He’s got his mouth full!” Wonshik half shouts, half moans.

“Okay, that’s enough for one day.” Hakyeon sounds horrified and they can imagine him trying to shoo the others away from the front of the door. “Time to move along.”

Taekwoon pulls off Wonshik’s dick with a _pop_ , “you brought this on yourselves!”

“Yeah, you’ve pretty much given us a free pass now.” Wonshik calls and them leans forwards and captures Taekwoon’s lips with his own, his dick twitching when he tastes himself on his tongue. He always thought he’d be mortified if the rest of their members were to catch them in a compromising situation but now, doing this and knowing they’re all listening on the other side of the thin door, he actually finds it kind of hot. He pulls back from the kiss just before he loses his breath, “welcome to hell, idiots!”

“We’ll be back in ten minutes to let you out.” Hakyeon squeaks.

“There’s lube and a condom behind the bucket!” Jaehwan sounds nothing short of gleeful.

Wonshik catches Taekwoon’s gaze and they grin, “make it fifteen.”

“Oh, dear god.” Someone mutters. “What have we done?”

They laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if there's anything specific you want to read and I'll see what I can do.


End file.
